A Fairytail Romance
by Avelovae
Summary: Lucy only wanted to feel a little sorry for herself. She didn't want to find herself in the middle of a dark guild conspiracy. She didn't expect to form a team with Gajeel Redfox. But most of all, she wasn't expecting to fall in love with him. [HeartFox]
1. Owner Of A Lonely Heart

This started as a pet project for me to do on the two-hour commute to University, and has thus broken off and is growing into something that is going to be epically long. Mostly written because I love Gajeel, I love Lucy, and the thought of them together intrigued me. And thus, **A Fairytail Romance** was born.

One-time disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. That is why it is **fan**fiction and not canon.

Will hereby contain: violence (hey, it's Fairy Tail); nudity (a given); romance (not of the squishy kind, but of the socially-inept and slightly awkward kind); smut (more towards the end); raging jealousy (mostly Loki and Gajeel); complete silliness (hey, when isn't Fairy Tail silly?); embarrassing situations (Gajeel has no sense of private space and grabby hands); cuteness (in the form of Wendy and Lucy being sister-ly); adorableness (in the form of Gajeel taking Wendy under his wing); gratuitous scenes of Lucy in/with underwear (I have no idea where it comes from, it just _does_);

Well, that pretty much sums it up so far. Oh, and the chapter titles are named after the first random song that comes on the Ipod, so don't really read into it that much. I suck at naming things.

**A Fairytail Romance**

Lucy Heartfilia x Gajeel Redfox

_Chapter 1 – Owner Of A Lonely Heart_

Lucy blew out a petulant raspberry as she contemplated the now empty cocktail glass's frosted depths. It had been a handful of days, nearly a week, since they came back from Edolas - what a right kerfuffle that had been - and Lucy was strongly considering alcoholism as a future career. At least Cana would be happy to have a new drinking buddy.

Where Lucy's unexpected and not entirely unwelcomed trip into alcoholism had come from was the reason for so much joy within the guild; Lisanna. Natsu's dear childhood friend, and younger sister of the loveable Elfman and the motherly Mirajane - a treasured member of Fairy Tail that had been sucked into the anima and wound up in Edolas for years. Lucy was so thrilled for Mirajane and Elfman, having never seen them quite so happy and yet unable to stop crying, and so pleased that Natsu hadn't stopped grinning like the idiot he was for days now… not that she had really seen him much.

No, because the Dragon Slayer was attached to Lisanna like some kind of psychotic barnacle, and Lisanna seemed to do nothing but encourage it. He had even left to go on a mission _with her_. He hadn't bothered consulting Lucy on the matter, like he always did, and not once had he broken into her apartment, fallen asleep in her bed or raided her cupboard for food. Lucy never thought she would miss having the pink-haired idiot break into her place, but as much as it annoyed her, it made her feel _loved_ - not something she had ever felt since her mother passed away all those years ago. But now Lucy felt like she had been nothing but a replacement for Lisanna, even though she knew that Natsu would never think of his nakama like that.

Still, it hurt to know that Natsu couldn't see past Lisanna to even stop in and see Lucy every now and then, even just to let her know he was alive and well. Lucy sighed, glared at the bottom of her glass, and wailed to Mirajane for more alcohol. The kind, motherly waitress looked at her with obvious concern, but still set about mixing her another blindly brightly-coloured cocktail. Normally, this would be the stage where she would spill all her deepest-darkest's to Mirajane, but the former S-Class mage was the sister - the very loving and protective sister - of the current… well, Lucy wouldn't say bane, but there were certainly negative feelings starting on Lucy's end.

Mirajane came back with a bubblegum blue liquid in her glass, even going as far as putting a little umbrella in the edge for her. It made Lucy smile at the little gesture of cheer from Mira, but it didn't stop the drinking-induced depression that was threatening to engulf her once again. Instead, she took a swig of her offendingly-coloured cocktail and laid her head on the bar, peering off to the left with one half-squinted eye because the other was smooshed against the wooden counter.

Gajeel was sitting at the far end of the bar, munching on iron shards that Mirajane had procured ever since the Iron Dragon Slayer joined Fairy Tail. He seemed to be a regular fixture in that exact spot, almost every time when Lucy saw him - when he wasn't beating the stuffing out of someone. She knew from personal experience how brutal the man could be, and yet, she didn't find herself holding a grudge against him. Gajeel had barely said boo to her since he joined, choosing mostly to throw taunts at Natsu, which, really, was like a Fairy Tail time-honoured sport - and the rises that the Iron Dragon Slayer got from Natsu were better than Gray's.

Lucy was sure that he had been avoiding her every time they stumbled paths in the guild, where he would keep looking ahead and act like a man-shaped battering ram to push his way through the unruly crowd of their guild. It was rather effective, and sometimes Lucy found herself waiting a few extra minutes for the Slayer just so she would get bowled over and groped (something that happened on a regular basis, but less so since Natsu and Erza started beating up the people who did it). He was always by himself, with the more recent exception of Panther Lily, which Gajeel seemed almost scarily thrilled about - he had been the only Dragon Slayer in their guild without an Exceed counterpart, something that the Slayer had been touchy about.

It made Lucy think that, somewhere under all that iron, was a quite nice man. She had seen the way he had helped Wendy in Edolas, bickering and prodding her almost like an older brother would, though the Iron Slayer would start swinging if ever affronted with the knowledge. Gajeel turned a red-slitted eye to her, and Lucy supposed he had felt the weight of her gaze. He just scrutinised her for a moment, snorted, and went back to munching away on the solid iron chunks before him. _Hmm, he would be great for demolishing buildings_.

She held back her giggle, sobering up slightly as her good humour began to flee her. Lucy looked how he felt - alone, temperamental and _miserable_. He was in a similar boat that she was in - if they would both be in one without sinking from all his iron… wait, off track. They had both lost something upon returning to Earthland; she had lost Natsu, and Gajeel had lost _Levi_. Lucy wasn't an idiot; she had seen the way that Gajeel used to look at her, with slight awe and a softening of his features that spelt out _L.O.V.E_ to Lucy. Levi had been either oblivious to it, or ignorant, because she was now making googly eyes at Elfman, who was more than enjoying the attention like a gentleman.

Gajeel might not be the most in-touch human being out there, but she was sure that he would have no trouble with Levi if he _actually came out and said something_. But the Iron Dragon Slayer was as dense as Natsu in that area, and contrary to popular belief, when a guy likes a girl, it doesn't make the girl suddenly psychic to their feelings. She had tried explaining to Natsu once, but he just yawned and fell asleep on her half way through, and Lucy had punched him in the side of his head. She had staunchly given up on teaching Natsu the ways of the heart after that, instead electing to go halvies in paying for a series of books with Erza to explain it to the oblivious Fire Dragon Slayer. Natsu had set them on fire and eaten them.

But back to the point - Lucy couldn't really see it, but she was sure that, somewhere deep down, Gajeel was _moping_ over his loss of Levi. She was one of the few within the guild that wasn't afraid, or outright hostile to him. Most of the hostility had been dispelled ever since his pitch-in and victory in Edolas, and his conviction to save the frozen guild from being melted down into power, or being used as a massive battering ram bomb against the Exceed. But there were still many who were afraid to approach the large Slayer, except for the other Slayers, Gray and Erza (Erza wasn't afraid of anything, let alone Gajeel).

He used to scare Lucy, after he joined their guild with her torture still fresh in mind, but he more like a big, spiky, iron-eating kitty-cat now. And he _must be so lonely_ since Levi started making eyes at the middle child of the Take Over Siblings, just like how Lucy was feeling now that Natsu had replaced her with Lisanna. Making up her mind, with a lot of help from her alcohol-induced state, Lucy grabbed her cocktail on the third try, pulled herself up, and made a wonky beeline for the Slayer. She was far from silent and stealthy in her approach, almost tripping before Droy caught her, nodding her thanks, and went back to stalking to Gajeel. Natsu had proven to her many times over at how acute a Dragon Slayer's sense of smell really was, not that Wendy seemed to share that quality, but Gajeel steadfastly ignored her until she scrambled onto the barstool beside him.

A red-iris eye turned to her, his slitted pupil no doubt taking in her slightly rumpled state and her half-drunk cocktail, and she gave him a blinding grin that made him snort and try to ignore her. She laid her head back down on the counter because right now, there were two Gajeel's, and they both looked pissed off - not that Gajeel had another expression aside from that and battle-lust. He eventually merged back into one person, albeit a little blurry on the edges, but she could see his red eyes clearly, and they were staunchly staying away from her.

"You don't have to hide it from me, you know," Lucy told him, although she was sure it came out a little fuzzily.

Gajeel turned to look at her, his studded brows drawn in a mixture of confusion and annoyance - another Gajeel trademark. He could probably look angry even after having sex. Lucy had to force back the giggle that threatened to well up.

Gajeel didn't seem to want to say anything, so Lucy took his silence as consent to continue.

"An' don't keep it bottled up. Any more bottling and you'll explode, and then I'll be wiping little Gajeel chunks off the ceiling. And frankly, I'm not tall enough to get away with that, so just… just _don't_, okay?"

Gajeel finally spoke.

"What the _hell_ are you blathering about, bunny girl?" he groused.

Lucy grimaced at the nickname, but let it fly for now. _He was hurting emotionally, and he didn't even know it._

"Poor baby," Lucy cooed, reaching over to squeeze his forearm.

It was like trying to squeeze a lead pipe, so Lucy let her hand flop down and just looked at him. The anger was gone - someone take a picture! - and replaced with pure confusion, and a little bit of worry. Not actual worry, more like _get-me-away-from-the-mental-patient_ worry. Lucy took offence to that, before realising it was _all in her head_ right now, and grinned to herself.

She must really look like a loon now - not that that meant much in _Fairy Tail_. They were a renown guild of loonies and nutjob's, but they always got the damn job done, even if they did end up levelling a few city blocks in the process _(God-fucking-dammit, Natsu, control! CONTROL!)_.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gajeel hissed.

Scare tactics didn't really work on Lucy - she had grown up with Jude Heartfilia as a father, after all. A Heartfilia didn't get scared, they got _corporate_.

"With _us_," Lucy corrected him, "And I think you know."

"What, did you escape from a loony bin or something?" came the blunt reply.

Lucy grinned at him.

"No, we're heartbroken," Lucy explained.

Gajeel looked like he wanted to either laugh or hit her, and Lucy was fairly sure it was the latter, because she had never actually heard the Iron Dragon Slayer laugh before. As humour and irony impaired as Gajeel was, Lucy was sure that he had a sense of humour hidden deep down there, near the part that secretly loved cats.

"You're an idiot," he snorted, turning away from her.

Lucy gave a sad sigh. _Denial._

"You don't have to hide it from me," Lucy sympathised, patting his arm once again.

Gajeel growled. Lucy ignored him.

"So you're feeling a bit down that t-that damn _bastard_ just suddenly _ditched_ you for someone else, it's nothing to… t-to…"

She had originally meant to try and show Gajeel that he was _lying to himself_ in saying that he didn't care, that he wasn't heart-broken, but Lucy only managed to remind herself of her own predicament. Lucy burst into tears, the alcohol certainly contributing to the part where she threw herself at Gajeel and sobbed on him. The Dragon Slayer was stiffer than a board, and made no attempt to move under the onslaught of sobbing girl that had stubbornly attached itself to his midsection.

She was vaguely aware of soft hands behind her, trying to pry her off the Slayer, but she only tightened her grip on Gajeel and wailed harder. It was more petulance than sadness now, and she was glad that Natsu, Gray and Erza wasn't here to see this, because they would try to cheer her up, and that would just make her feel more miserable. Strong, callused and rough hands replaced those soft little ones, and she was soon pried away from the Dragon Slayer by Gajeel himself, his studded forearms bulging as he lifted her clear off the floor and dumped her on the barstool that she had once occupied.

Lucy laid herself face-down on the counter, listening to Gajeel getting up to _get the hell out of there_ before she decided to cling to him again. It was probably unfair of her to do that to him, after all, she didn't know him on a personal basis, but would it _kill him_ to be a little more sympathetic? He was in the same predicament as she was, what with Elfman swooping in to woo Levi right under his nose, so Lucy expected him of _all_ people to understand. Damn iron-headed _boob_ - maybe he really did have the emotional range of a stunted shrub.

There was the sound of hushed bickering behind her in Mirajane's sweet voice and Gajeel's rough tenor. She loved listening to Mirajane talk - the former S-Class mage reminded her of her mother so much sometimes, it made Lucy want to cry and embrace her. They had the same softness about them, the same strength of heart and caring for the people around them - but mostly it was her hands. Soft hands with light calluses from years of mage practise, but always soft, so soft.

There was a loud thump to her left, and Lucy squinted up to see that Gajeel had parked himself back in his seat, teeth grit and a look on his face that said he _really_ didn't want to be here. Despite all they had been through, all the times that Gajeel had protected the guild, from within or outside, he still sequestered himself away from everyone else. Lucy used to think that it was some form of punishment upon himself for destroying it when they first met, and she was right in part, but another big portion of it was that Gajeel was amazingly inept with people and socialization. He just didn't bother to make the effort, but still worked his ass off for Fairy Tail.

Lucy wondered if that was what had attracted Levi to him in the first place, being the dark, misunderstood badboy - and upon further thought, it was probably what had driven her away as well. Lucy was staring at Gajeel the whole time, while he was glaring at a purposely fixed point at the wall in front of him, almost like he was trying to set it alight under the heat of his glare. Maybe it was the angle she was slumped at, or the wonky lighting of the guild, or, more likely, the _alcohol_, but Gajeel was looking very swanky from this angle. He looked rough and tough, like Elfman did, but Gajeel had the dark, misunderstood and slightly mysterious aura, just like a character from a book.

He was handsome in his own way, and he was much more muscular than Natsu was - Natsu was wiry strong, where as Gajeel had the sheer bulk, not even going into his Iron Dragon Slaying abilities. His right arm, now in Lucy's direct line of vision, had scars wrapped around it, striking between the metal studs there, that Lucy had never really noticed until now. He always dressed shabbily, in the same iron-hemmed ragged tunic and white pants, but she knew the strong mass of muscles rested underneath that, and he had a tendency to tear his clothing in battle. Lucy snorted - people had a tendency to tear off her clothing for her.

"How did she get away?" Lucy found herself asking, sounding a lot clearer than she had when she last tried to talk.

Gajeel looked distinctly annoyed with her little game of drunken twenty questions, and Lucy was pretty sure that he was going to tell her to screw off very soon now, but surprisingly, he answered her.

"She never had to 'get away' in the first place," Gajeel told her.

_Ooh. Touchy._

"You _know_ what I mean," Lucy pouted back.

Gajeel returned to glaring at the wall and ignoring her.

"Oh, come on," Lucy groaned. "_Emote_. I know this is hurting you."

Silence and teeth grinding.

Lucy glared at him pathetically. _Fine. If he doesn't want to play ball, __**I'll make him**_.

"What happened? _Come on_," she whined. "Did you accidently bite her?"

Gajeel's glare intensified, but he didn't look at Lucy._ Cock-bite_

"Did you call her fat? Insult her books? Her intelligence? Did you superglue her face to the table and write on her face in permanent marker?" Lucy narrowed an eye at him. "Did you take her last bear-claw? Because she's really touchy about her pastries, y'know."

More teeth grinding and a low, throaty growl, but nothing more. Lucy grit her teeth in determination. _If you're going to play it this way, time to turn up the intensity. Dirty magazines, don't fail me now._

"During sex, did you spank your own ass and shout out "mommy!"

Gajeel nearly launched out of his seat.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" the Dragon Slayer hissed angrily, but Lucy couldn't stop the slap-happy grin spread across her lips.

_Gajeel: 0 – Lucy: 1._

"Well then just _talk _to me," Lucy whined, still grinning like a demon.

"Screw off, bunny-girl," Gajeel gritted out.

"Bite me, cock-head," Lucy shot back.

Months of witness, and subsequently breaking up the fights between Natsu and Gray had provided Lucy with a great vocabulary of creative insults, mostly involving the word cock or fuck. Her father would be foaming at the mouth if he heard what his little girl was saying these days. Now _there's_ an idea.

She thought that Gajeel looked faintly surprised, then vaguely amused and kind of proud. Lucy thought he might overload from the show of emotion.

"Still got some fire in ya," Gajeel mused, giving her a sharp grin, showing _all_ his _very pointy_ teeth.

She remembered him saying something similar during her captivity in Phantom Lord's moving fortress, right when he tried to pin her to the wall with iron shards. Oddly enough, it wasn't off-putting. It made her grin again.

"Damn fucking straight," she groused, but there was a bite of playful to her words.

Gajeel turned away from her, but he still had a ghost of that toothy grin plastered on his face. She still had her temple pressed on the cool wood of the counter, and it was doing wonders for her blossoming headache, and _wow, was she going to be hung over in the morning_.

"So, what did happen?" Lucy asked, prodding him about Levi once again.

If he actually just came out and told her, she would not have to prod and poke him to get him to show emotions. Gajeel grit his teeth once again. _It was obviously a sore spot for him._ Lucy wanted to hug him, but she knew that would go over as well as Gray hugging Natsu. Now _there_ was an image!

"Why do you even care, bunny-girl?" Gajeel stressed.

It was a fair question, and now that Lucy thought about it, she shouldn't _really_ care. This was the man who had brutalised her a handful of months ago, soldered her to a wall and tried to use her for a dart board after beating the shit out of her. She should feel nothing but contempt for him, like so many others in the guild, but when she looked over at him, in his own little corner of Fairy Tail with only Juvia as occasional company, she just felt _sad_ for him. He must have been so damn lonely all by himself over in this corner, but then Levi warmed up to him, and she visited his little corner of 'paradise' and talked at him. _And now she was gone from his side_.

"You look so lonely sometimes," Lucy admitted.

Gajeel looked at her, his face hard and unreadable, and didn't say a word.

"Don't pull this love-thy-nakama shit," Gajeel warned.

Lucy grimaced.

"Y'know, sometimes I just want to hit you?" she told him. "And other I want to hug you until the pain goes away."

Gajeel turned his face away from her with a "tch" noise, and Lucy thought she had hit a nerve, but when he turned back a moment later, his face was back to the normal combination of irritation and anger. But still, she found herself smiling, and set about try to get another rise out of him like before.

"You didn't try to wear her underwear, did you?"

"_Screw off, bunny-girl_."


	2. Prove My Love

This chapter hereby contains: bad hangovers (poor Lucy); Lucy grovelling for forgiveness (not really, but still); Gajeel being a jackass (what else is new?); Lucy feeling sorry for herself (in more ways than one); smutty romance novels (from the _bad_ end of the book shelf); mysterious noises (look out below, Lucy); injured exceed (Pantherlily is my plot-mover).

Small shout-out to CeliaEquus, who _won't_ marry me. Come on, you know I'd be good to you, and I'd give you all the Red Dwarf you can handle.

Oh, and by the way, this chapter is kinda slow, but it's to set the interaction between our two favourite Fairy Tail mage's I'm messing with.

Song by Violent Femmes (and is vaguely stalker-ish)

_Chapter 2 – Prove My Love_

"_Ngaaah!"_

Admittedly, it wasn't the most graceful way to start the day, but that single spear of light managed to just hit her eyes, casting a painful light there and, subsequently, setting off her massive now not-so-looming headache. Lucy tossed an arm over her eyes, hiding in the crook of her elbow, but the damage had been done - she was semi-conscious, but her headache was up and rearing to go. She whimpered, _begging_ that there was some super villain out there intent on destroying the sun just so she wouldn't have to cope with it right now.

Lucy rolled over, trying desperately to escape that ray of light, and ending up shrieking as she tumbled off the edge of her bed. Well, the light was gone now, but her head throbbed, her ribs ached from the impact, and _she was going to throw up_. With all the urgency and grace of a left-footed penguin, Lucy scrabbled across her wooden floor to the bathroom, making it _just_ in time to hurl in the toilet rather than across her tiles. She released a pitiful moan, wishing that Erza was in town, because the ex-quip mage always _knew_ when her nakama were hurting, and that was Lucy wouldn't have to find her own way back to her bed - Erza would just carry her. But she was out of town with Gray, Natsu and _Lisanna_, getting up to bad antics that _Lucy_ used to accompany them on.

She considered trying to crawl back to bed, but a series of dry heaves kept her planted firmly on the bathroom floor, and Lucy vowed to _never_ drink that much again. After ten minutes of lounging beside the toilet while her tummy settled, Lucy decided on the only course of action. She would drag her _sorry_ _ass_ into the shower, go down to the guild and _beg_ Wendy to use a Troia on her. The little Dragon Slayer wouldn't deny her - hell, Wendy never denied _anyone_ - but it was more the getting there part that had Lucy stumped.

Gritting her teeth like the big tough mage she _wasn't_, Lucy pulled herself upright on the towel rack and staggered into the shower, fiddling with the cold knob to make her shower cool, but not too much. Half way through her cool shower and a single dry heave later, Lucy found herself groaning and amending her schedule for the morning; _she had to apologise to Gajeel_. She didn't completely remember what she had said to him, but she did remember throwing herself at him and sobbing on him, which was a massive no-no when it came to the personal space-sensitive Iron Dragon Slayer. Biting her lip and groaning, Lucy lathered her hair with shampoo while she tried desperately to remember _what the fuck she had said to him_. She remembered him grinning at one point, which either meant she had amused him or he was going to try and kill someone; likely the latter, what with his temper.

She dragged herself out of the shower with much less enthusiasm than when she had entered, and that was saying something, because she was miserable when she had pulled herself into the glass shower. Towelling herself off roughly, Lucy didn't bother to wrap herself in her towel as she walked back out into her apartment, heaving straight for her drawers and pulling on her most comfortable panties and bra. She wasn't in the mood for lace and frills today, so it was a regular black satin set that was so comfortable she always took them on long missions. Lucy yanked a pale green sundress from her closet, something that came to her knees but showed a fair amount of cleavage, slipped on a pair of flat shoes, pulled on her belt with her keys attached, and made out the door.

She knew the way to the guild like the back of her hand, and could do it blindfolded, but today, she took it easy, going from awning to awning to avoid the direct sunlight as much as possible. Her hair was drying quickly in Magnolia's usual heat, leaving it slightly frizzy at the end, but Lucy couldn't bring herself to care. The only thing she could think of was to find the two Dragon Slayers in the guild at the moment, and hopefully Wendy first, because she would need all her faculties to try and diffuse Gajeel from turning her into putty.

It wasn't surprising that the first person she stumbled across when she threw open the guild doors was Cana, and the older woman gave her a sympathetic look at the telltale signs of Lucy's hangover. _Been there, sister_, her eyes said, and Lucy nodded emphatically as she passed. She was hoping to just magically stumble across Wendy the moment she entered, but there was no way it would be that easy, because sitting there, at the end of the bar in his own personal little bubble, was Gajeel.

Lucy paused, calculating her odds of just turning around and slinking away rather than facing the Iron Dragon Slayer, but if the past was something to go by, then Gajeel was already well aware that Lucy was there. He had tracked her across Magnolia back then with just his sense of smell, so odds where that he could sniff her out right now in the confines of the guild. She bit her lip, and acted like the big person she _really wasn't_ - Erza wasn't here to save her right now -_-_ and bellied up to the barstool beside the Slayer.

He turned an eye to her, and Lucy thanked her lucky stars that he wasn't trying to tear her lungs out, and laid her head down on the counter in a disturbingly familiar fashion that she couldn't quite recall. She peeked up at the Dragon Slayer through blonde lashes to see him looking resolutely at his plate of metal chips, but there was something faintly _amused_ about his aura today that made Lucy think that she owed him a rather large apology.

"So," Lucy said, garnering his attention, "How big of an apology do I owe you?"

She didn't like the fact that he answered by curling his lips upwards into a vaguely malicious smirk - that never meant anything good. Lucy got the distinct impression that he was silently laughing at her, even if it was just the sudden brightening amusement in his red eyes. She wanted to grumble and walk away from the Dragon Slayer, but something in the back of her mind said that she _really_ owed him an apology, and Lucy knew it was right. She had been a horrible mixture of depressed and drunk last night, and that never boded well, because she had been told on multiple occasions (Erza and Cana, mostly) that she lost most of her sense of decency when hammered.

Stars knew what she did to Gajeel last night, but it mustn't be all that bad since she was still standing.

"Don't be a jackass," she warned, and Gajeel's smirk widened.

That's it. _Screw the apology_. Lucy sniffed and, rising out of her seat, flipped him the bird. If anything, it seemed to amuse him more, because even though she couldn't see his face from this angle, there was a slight shake to his form that suggested that he might actually be laughing at her.

And she found out why.

Her bout of anger and sudden movement had been fuelled by adrenalin, which seemed to wear off immediately, leaving her feeling very motion sick from her hangover. She wobbled unsteadily and grit her teeth to stop the oncoming dry heaves, and _that bastard was laughing to himself!_ Making a mental note to completely avoid the hostile Dragon Slayer from this point onwards, Lucy staggered away to find somewhere to lie down until Wendy found her.

The sofa in the corner was a dark red lumpy thing, which Lucy was fairly sure was bought purposely because its so uncomfortable no one could sleep on it. Of course, they probably never took into account the vast alcoholic habits that most of the guild seemed to have - which was where Lucy was, napping off her hangover through the constant brawls and yelling, hoping that Wendy would notice she was there. She woke up briefly when soft hands pressed a damp cloth on her forehead, knowing that those hands belonged to Mirajane, but kept her eyes closed and imagined it was her mother. Mirajane came back every hour to change the cloth and to throw a light blanket over her legs.

When Lucy next woke up and felt well enough to stand, the sun was setting outside and her head was only throbbing dully instead of screaming bloody murder. Mirajane had left her a bottle of water and a bottle of aspirin at the foot of the couch, and Lucy made a mental not to hug the crap out of her the next chance she got. It looked like it was going to be one of those nights where Fairy Tail resembled a nuclear fallout shelter, so Lucy popped a few aspirin before plotting her timely and much needed escape. She had just plotted her escape route, completely avoiding Cana because _that_ would just result in more drinking, when a shadow fell across her.

Mirajane knelt down beside Lucy, her gentle hand resting on Lucy's knee and a kind smile on her face. She looked so much like her mother there that Lucy instinctually threw her arms around the older mage's neck, pressing her face into her neck. Mirajane chuckled kindly, rubbing Lucy's back softly and with affection. Lucy dislodged herself and smiled sheepishly at Mirajane, who just putted her knee once more with motherly affection.

"Thank you, Mira-san," Lucy said, sounding every bit as pathetic and groggy as she felt.

Mirajane just smiled affectionately. It was something she did on an almost daily basis for most of Fairy Tail's members, after all, and she was a very affectionate woman to her guildmates. Lucy wobbled upright and walked with the oldest Take Over Sibling to the gaping doors of Fairy Tail. The night was looking to be a cool one, and there was already a bite in the air and the sun hadn't even set yet. Lucy wanted to get home quickly, get some food into her and write another letter to her mother to stick in the cabinet above her desk.

Just as Lucy was stepping outside, she remembered what she had meant to do within the guild; _apologise to Gajeel_.

"Mira-san, have you seen Gajeel lately?" Lucy asked her

Lucy wasn't sure that she liked the oddly knowing smirk that crossed Mirajane's lips.

"Gajeel-kun is doing a job for the Master," Mira informed her.

"Funny, don't remember him leaving," she muttered, more to herself.

"He left shortly after you passed out this morning," Mirajane helpfully supplied.

Lucy bade Mirajane a last fond farewell before exiting Fairy Tail's courtyard and following the canal back to her apartment. She pressed her hands in close to her body, warding the cold away from her already cool fingers, and pondered the implications of her day. Admittedly, she hadn't gotten anything done but napping, which had certainly helped with her hangover, but left her feel more awake then she should have at this hour. She never did find Wendy, the little Sky Dragon Slayer strangely absent; or right in front of her face - noises just meshed together inside Fairy Tail. She _had_ found Gajeel, but only ended up insulting him instead of apologising.

_Bad Lucy_. That was exactly the opposite of what she had set out to do today, and now she'd have to apologise doubly the next time she saw Gajeel, and hold her tongue even if the _jackass_ did smirk. Lucy stopped down on the street, looking up at her apartment.

The window was closed.

Lucy sighed, grabbing her key ring to fish around for the one that opened her apartment door and not a spirit gate. The window to her apartment was always open if Natsu was there; alternatively, if Natsu broke in. It was his favourite method of entering and exiting, and Lucy swore that she had only seen him use the door once before, and that was because Erza and Gray were with him. Closed window meant no Natsu, not that he had the time for her anymore, what with Lisanna around.

_Fuck._ She just made herself sad again.

Lucy pinched her cheeks to stop the depression looming around the corner and unlocked her door. It was depressingly silent inside her small yet spacious apartment, lacking the usual rumbling of Natsu's snores and the rummaging of Happy for food. Lucy sighed, resigning herself to a mild blues tonight, and went into her bedroom to dig out some warm clothing. She ended up completely forgoing pants in favour of the boyshort panties she was already wearing, and slipping into a long-sleeved shirt to keep her upper body warm. Grabbing a book from her bookcase, Lucy dropped it on the small table in her bedroom, and made to sit down, but found herself pausing.

Her window was still closed. It would let in a horrible draft and cool down her charmingly warm bedroom, and it would let in the sound of the busy street beneath, but Lucy still found herself sliding across her bed to wrench it open. The bracing cold of the night air blew across her face, and Lucy retreated back to her table, warped a blanket around her hips, and opened her book.

The book she'd randomly selected came from the very smutty end of her romance novels - it was basically porn in writing form - which she was just going to use as a gapfiller before writing yet another letter to her mother. But then she drifted into the plot, and the next thing she knew, her clock was chiming on midnight and she knew that she should really be getting some sleep, but that little voice in the back of her head just asked _why?_ There was nothing in particular she had to do tomorrow, and there were no current jobs she could do alone and hope to return in one piece - nobody at the guild seemed to want to team up, all going after the payday's by themselves.

She was just resigning herself to finishing her trashy romance novel and the sleeping the rest of the morning away when a scrambling noise greeted her ears. It sounded suspiciously like the noises Happy made when he was too tired to fly, and that meant that _Natsu was back!_ Finding it hard to contain her glee, Lucy scrabbled over to her window, completely forgetting that she wasn't wearing pants, and stuck her head out into the darkness.

_Nothing_

The butterflies that had risen in her stomach fell, and_ of course Natsu wouldn't be back now_ - he had only left a handful of days ago, and that wasn't enough time to pull off massive destruction in the way that only Natsu could. She let out a strained sigh, folded her arms over the windowsill to rest her head there comfortably, staring out into the darkness of the city, and the lights of the stars. Lucy could feel Loki stirring from her keys, knowing that the lion could feel her wavery emotional state, and was just _looking_ for an excuse to cross over to her.

Lucy did appreciate Loki, she really did - the lion had always turned up when she needed him, without question and preamble - but their last few meetings had been met with a few disturbing love declarations. She was used to the banter, really - he wouldn't be Loki _without_ the banter - but it was beginning to get more passionate and he had _that look_ in his eyes. It made Lucy nervous and wiggly and desperate to escape whenever he brought it up.

Sighing, and resigning herself to the end of her novel and then to bed, Lucy made to shut the window before her, only to pause again. Those scrabbling noises were back, along the awning under her window, which was Natsu's favourite method of entry, and Lucy stuck her head out once again and peered _down_. She could make out the small form of an exceed scrabbling its way along her awning to the window, only falling short every time it hit the higher slope of the fabric to meet the window.

Lucy's hand shot out on instinct, curling its way around the small furry body to drag it upwards to the window frame. What was wrong with Happy that he couldn't get up the awning? She tugged the small cat-like being up to the wooden window frame, into the light and gasped.

"Pantherlily?"

The dark exceed was covered in wounds, his small teeth grit in pain as he grabbed onto the window frame to support his injured frame.

"Lucy," the exceed gulped. "Help."

She immediately scooped up Pantherlily, mindful of his shallow but numerous injuries, and cradled him to her bosom protectively. Lily was a fairly strong warrior, and for him to be in this state… _Gajeel!_ Gajeel was never far away from his treasured exceed partner, at least, never willingly, and that could only mean something went terribly wrong on the mission that Master Makarov had sent him on.

"Lily, where's Gajeel," Lucy asked, finding her voice trembling.

Pantherlily gasped, his small teeth gritting so hard that Lucy thought they were going to break.

"Outside," Lily hissed as his wounds were jostled.

Lucy dumped the exceed onto her bed, mindful a little too late of his wounds, and dashed out her door. She didn't care, or even remember, that she didn't have pants on; the only thing going through her mind was _if those were the wounds that Lily sustained, then what of Gajeel?_ She stumbled over the threshold of the apartment complex door, grasping it for support while whipping her head around, searching for any trace of the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"That way!"

Lucy looked up, seeing Pantherlily poking his head out her window, his small fingers jabbing downwards to the left, and Lucy took off in the vague direction. She listened and searched for any sign of the less than subtle Slayer, hoping that his usual habits of being as subtle as a rampaging elephant were active and made known. About a minute of frantic running had her staring at a blood trail coming from down the road in front of her, and turning into the narrow alley to her right. Without a thought to her own safety, and without her keys, Lucy ran into the mouth of the alley, eyes searching until…

"Gajeel!"


	3. A Twist In My Story

This here will contain; Lucy having bad thoughts (_no_, not those kind); reflection (the soul-searching kind with a little violence); perving (on Gajeel's part); Lucy without pants ("LWP" – expect to see it a lot); injuries (Gajeel seems to attract them)

Shout-out to Oddball Punk, who brought some questions to light, which shall be featured at the end for anyone else wondering - and as such, earned a sneak peek teaser of this chapter beforehand.

You know, I really enjoy messing with these two. It just makes my day. Ah, _HeartFox_, my OTP…

Chapter song by Secondhand Serenade

XXXXXXXX

_Chapter 3 – A Twist in my Story_

It was one of those chance moments that Lucy found herself in to thoroughly glance-over the Iron Dragon Slayer, and not have the man notice. Of course, he was currently unconscious and bandaged up in her bed, but that was beside the point. The point was that Gajeel Redfox was now at her almighty mercy, and she couldn't think of _a single thing to do to him_ in retaliation for all the shit he had put her though over the past few months. This was a prime, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that only came by _once_, and Lucy was completely flummoxed on what to do.

There were all kinds of things she could do to him for payback for her rough treatment in Phantom Lord, but there was the fact that he was _injured_. It had taken several hours out of her night to strap up his shallow but bleeding injuries, but his left arm took the longest. His strong, metal-studded scarred arm had almost been torn apart to the point where Lucy worried if she should stitch it up herself or just call Wendy. But Lucy had no way to contact the Sky Dragon Slayer, so she washed it out (_Gajeel really didn't like that)_, disinfected it with the mass of first aid supplies she had accumulated, and taped it up with medical tape and bandages.

It was heavily swathed, but it was in tact, and that was the most important thing. Pantherlily was sprawled out on he table, his paws behind his head in a casual position that usually wouldn't have suited the exceed if she hadn't just finished bandaging his stomach. The exceed had come to after she had dragged Gajeel back to her apartment (_damn, he was fucking heavy!)_ and cleaned out his lesser wounds. Lily had helped her with his shredded left arm, entering his battle-mode for a few minutes to pin down the thrashing Dragon Slayer.

She had to hand it to Gajeel; his fight-or-flight instinct was very heavily wired to fight, to the point where he had swung and connected with Lily while he was still unconscious. It was a bit like when Erza was _awake_ and trying to get information promptly, which involved more head-butting than anything else.

Things had finally settled down, so Lucy slumped back into the armchair that sat permanently around her little wooden table, because Gray liked it, and that was that. She kicked her feet up onto the arm, swivelling herself to lay diagonally across it to take some pressure of her tired limbs, and splayed her arms out into comfortable but crooked angles. It was a very unladylike way to sit, something that Natsu would be proud of, and it would have her father spitting if she could see her now.

She turned her eyes to Lily, who was now looking at her upside-down. The warrior exceed had been very sparse on the details surrounding Gajeel's injuries, and curiosity was winning over silence. Besides, they _owed her_ an explanation.

"So, what exactly happened, Pantherlily?" Lucy asked.

Lily looked at her critically for a moment, before blowing out a sigh and repositioning himself so he could lie on his side and see her. Lucy was so used to Happy, who was just so happy-go-lucky and easy going, where as Pantherlily was a very serious and straight-forward individual.

"Makarov asked Gajeel to infiltrate a dark guild to get a run-down on them," Lily told her.

She was well aware, as was the rest of the legal guilds, about the sudden increase of dark guild activity. Fairy Tail had already had more than average run-ins with the defect guilds, usually ending up in a thrashing, but the sheer rate they were popping up had many worried. Their brief partnership with the other guilds had revealed the three head guilds that made up the Balam Alliance, the alliance of dark guilds that rose to power over the others; Oración Seis, Grimoire Heart and Tartaros.

Oración Seis had already been eliminated, thanks to the light guild alliance, but Grimoire Heart and Tartaros remained in the wind. There had been news of Grimoire Heart is on the move, conveyed from Master Makarov to his beloved children, but there had been little to no news or even information on Tartaros.

"We took on plenty of dark guilds during Nirvana," Lucy reasoned.

Many dark guilds under the command of Oración Seis and Grimoire Heart had been destroyed in the Nirvana attack by the guild's temporary alliance with the other major guilds of Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus. Those few left had surrendered themselves to the Council's will, or face the wrath of Erza the Titania, or perhaps worse, the hosts of Blue Pegasus.

"Gajeel tried to infiltrate Tartaros," Lily explained. "They're the only unknown factor in the Balam Alliance, but they clearly already knew about him and where his real loyalties lie."

_Shit._ Master Makarov had tried to shove Gajeel into _Tartaros_ after getting back from Edolas? Gajeel could have easily left them all to die in Edolas, but he had leapt through the anima to _save them_, which was of no short knowledge within and without the guild. It was obvious where the Dragon Slayer's allegiances lay after that particular stunt, so the question remained: did the old man have a death wish for the Dragon Slayer? Lucy knew that the Master had used Gajeel's old status as an S-Class mage in Phantom Lord to get information on dark guilds, but she he no idea that he was being _sent_ to such dangerous places _alone_.

Well, not so alone, since Lily came along. Lucy dreaded to think what would have happened if Pantherlily never came through the anima and decided to join Fairy Tail. Her gaze drifted back to where Gajeel was laying across her bed, so completely out of it that she could strip off and dance all over her room without the Iron Dragon Slayer even _knowing_ she was there. It was so rare for the Slayer to be unaware of his surroundings, what with at least half of Fairy Tail having a personal grudge against him _still_.

Lucy couldn't find the energy to get her wobbly-tired limbs to stand up to go over to the Dragon Slayer, but she could see from her chair that his chest was rising and falling steadily. Something about the Slayer was striking a chord in Lucy, that even when injured, he had no one he could go to or rely on aside from the recent addition of Pantherlily. Natsu had been over-friendly with her when he first whisked her away to Fairy Tail with his flying cat, and Erza and Gray had certain personal space issues that meant that even when she _wanted_ to be alone, there was no chance of that happening.

Lucy snorted to herself when she realised that this was the first semi-invited guest she had ever had in her apartment, let alone the first time that the Iron Dragon Slayer had been here. And it wasn't an easy task getting the Slayer to her apartment; in fact, it was more monumental for Lucy than the Nirvana fiasco because Gajeel _weighed a shitload more_ than he should. It must be because of the iron he ate on a daily basis and his bulk of muscles because _hot damn_ if he ever fell overboard off a boat, he would sink like a stone. Even Natsu wasn't that heavy, and he was the heaviest thing she'd ever had to lift (read: _cling onto for dear life_) in her life before Pantherlily found his way to her window.

She had to smother a yawn with the back of her hand, watching Gajeel rest peacefully not five feet from her, wondering if she should sent Loki off for Wendy. Lucy didn't know where the Sky Dragon Slayer lived, but she was sure that Loki's nose could find her; he was, after all, a lion in a human's body. But she was having issues with Loki at the moment. Yes, he was still her 'knight', he still defended her and they fought almost flawlessly together, but his declarations of love were getting more extreme and flamboyant. It would be flattering if it wasn't quite so creepy sometimes. The 'light of love' indeed.

Pantherlily had sprawled himself out on the table quite happily, his small dark eyes closed and his paws crossed over his chest. With Gajeel out of commission and Pantherlily skirting sleep, Lucy resigned herself to a night of sprawling over her armchair for sleep.

XXXXX

The first thing that pricked Gajeel into conscious was a terrible throbbing pain in his left arm. Sometimes he got phantom pains from the multitude of injures he had sustained there and the scars that resulted from them, but this was far beyond that. It made him crack his eyes open to try and attain _what_ was that throbbing pain when _everything came rushing back to him._ He jolted up from where he was lying, wincing from the shooting pain making its way along his arm and across his ribs, and prepared himself for battle.

But he didn't find any battle, any enemies or even the dark alley that Gajeel was fairly sure that he had gone down in. Instead he found himself in a warm and well-appointed apartment bedroom, half sitting up in a cosy double bed with his arm and ribs bandaged, and his ruined tunic folded on the floor beside the bed. His attention was first drawn to the table not five feet from the bed, the three mismatching chairs around it as well as an armchair that had a girl, _from the look of her feet and ass_, sprawled over it.

He couldn't see her face, seeing as it was buried into the back cushion of the armchair, but he recognised the smell of her. Gajeel had once hunted that smell all the way across Magnolia to capture her, coerce her and generally terrify and slightly torture her. It was the only child of Jude Heartfilia, the ex-heiress to the now bankrupt Heartfilia empire, _that damned bunny girl_, Lucy Heartfilia. All he could see of her at this angle was her feet, her underwear-clad ass and a random arm thrown over the back of the chair. Gajeel knew from couch experience that that position would wreak havoc on her neck and back, but that wasn't the most prominent thought right now.

What was in the foremost of his mind was _what the hell_ was he doing in the bunny girl's bedroom, and _how the hell_ did he get here. Her smell was everywhere, along with faint traces of that flame-brain and his group of idiots, but hers was more deeply ingrained in the furniture and bedding. Months of passing that scent of hers in the guild had desensitised him to it, to the point where he no longer subconsciously registered her as a threat or even an obstacle. Mind you, the bunny girl was about as threatening as a hairball and as dangerous as one.

She could fight. Gajeel knew that, ever since Laxus and his thunder tribe attacked the guild, and the bunny girl had K.O'd one of them all by herself. She didn't have the physical power or stamina that Titania had, but she could apparently hold her own against her opponents. He remembered that ice-stripper guy saying that Lucy had guided Natsu through Edolas before he got his powers back, fighting in his place and protecting her nakama. She was painfully like the flame-brain in that respect, always protecting her nakama and fighting to help them.

It was something that Gajeel never really experienced until coming into Fairy Tail. In Phantom Lord, that sort of behaviour was virtually non-existent except for that one time that Gajeel deflected an attack meant for Juvia back when they were still S-Class mages. But she had offered no thanks and made no deal out of it, just like usual - but _here_, when you did something like that, Fairy Tail turned into a cheer squad and assaulted you over it. It was one giant guild of bat-shit crazy people who acted like a slightly-retarded family, and Gajeel never thought that he would _like_ that guild of whack-jobs the amount he did.

"You're awake? Good."

His eyes drifted over to see Pantherlily sitting on the table, his arms crossed over his bandaged chest in his favourite pose. It made Gajeel breathe a sigh of relief to see that his exceed partner was okay - injured, yes, but okay - and sitting there with a look of utter comfort and slight laziness on his small face. He had never even tried to hide his affection for 'his cat', as he affectionately labelled Lily, but there were times that he couldn't contain his joy at having that exceed as his partner. Gajeel was pretty sure that he never would have made it out of that alley without the exceed.

But there were still some fuzzy-dark spots that the Dragon Slayer needed Lily to fill in for him.

"Lily, what happened?"

He remembered going to the meeting that one of his contacts inside of Raven Tail had put together for him, to get entry into Tartaros. It was the one dark guild in the Balam Alliance that they had no information about; nothing about the people in it, their goals or even how many mages they had. Everything was run-of-the-mill cloak-and-dagger for the arranged meeting on the far side of Magnolia, and Gajeel was exactly where he was supposed to be at the correct time. What he wasn't expecting was the Tartaros mages to jump down from the sides of the alley and launch an all-out assault on him, to which he barely had time to react to.

Gajeel knew his abilities better than anyone else, and even he knew that he couldn't fight that many mages at once, even in such a confined space. He could use his _Tetsuryu no Hoko_ to clear a path down one direction, but he was surrounded on both sides. He had managed to activate his scales just in time to avoid the multiple attacks, but one got through before his scales came into affect and got him in the ribs. It took a lot of his energy to stanch the bleeding with his muscles and scales alone, and then he used his superior strength and stamina to ram his way out of the mouth of the alley. It was then that Lily swooped in with his battle magic active, lashing out with his powerful limbs to get back-to-back with Gajeel.

He remembered some lucky _fucker_ getting off a lucky shot that cracked into his scarred left arm and that his rib-wound had started bleeding again then that was all he could remember. It was obvious that Lily had somehow gotten them out of there, because, no offense to the exceed, but he couldn't take out all those mages with Gajeel out of commission.

"I used Aera after you went down and got us the hell out of there," Pantherlily informed him. "Some bastard got off a shot at us in mid-air, and we crashed down not far from here."

That explained the exceed's injuries and his sore ribs, but not _how_ he ended up in the bunny girls' bed with her sleeping in her armchair while half-naked. Now _that_ was a question he would like the answer to, but he let Lily finish up.

"I followed the nearest scent I recognised from the guild and found Lucy, and she ran out to rescue you."

Gajeel had to hold back the snort from that sentence - the _bunny girl_ saving _him_, Iron Gajeel? He would have laughed at the very thought if he hadn't woken up in her bed, bandaged up and with her snoozing away not five feet from him. She had patched up Lily from the looks of it as well - and for some reason, it made Gajeel feel that odd little feeling that made him feel uncomfortably comfortable.

He didn't like feelings like that - that he didn't know how to interpret. In retrospect, joining Fairy Tail had been his single greatest downfall in his twenty years of life. Fairy Tail was a very close guild, counting even new members as nakama and always worthy of protection. It would be a very noble thing if they weren't _all fucking crazy as a badger_ and nonsensical at best. Gajeel never considered himself completely sane - he knew he had a few unusual quirks from being raised by _that selfish prick_ Metalicana - but this guild had him thinking that he may be just one of the handful of people who still had their minds.

He didn't consider the bunny girl to be one of those few 'sane' people, but she was always damn near the top. But apparently she had been taking a leaf out of that ice-stripper's book, because Gajeel bet that right now that Gray fellow had more clothing on than her.

_Hn. Nice ass._

But that was so completely off topic.

"How the hell did Tartaros know?" Gajeel growled aloud.

"Maybe they heard about Edolas? It would have been the prime moment to ensure the destruction of Fairy Tail and get away with it," Lily reasoned.

Gajeel had no secrets from Pantherlily - he had told the exceed his entire sordid and very violent life. Pantherlily had not judged him for it, accepting the Slayer for what he said and what he had done, and put it in the past. People were not so accepting of him, a man who had been raised a short-tempered and inherently violent dragon who _loved him_, and had inherited many of those traits. Dragons were not cuddly creatures like that flame-brain and Wendy; they were fierce and ferocious and they protected their _completely retarded guilds_ to the very last breath.

He sucked a breath in through his teeth, his ribs groaning at the action that strained them, and squinted over to the bunny girl again. She had managed to shift her position in a strange contorted pose that pressed her face almost completely into the chair cushion, but also left her legs hanging over the arm and her arms wedged in wherever they could fit. He had never really reflected much on the blonde girl, not even when he had kidnapped her and kicked the crap out of her - she was just another job back then - but she had sort of proved herself as someone worthy in his eyes.

It started, surprisingly enough, when he had kidnapped her and 'entertained' her in the moving Phantom Lord fortress before the flame-brain came storming through on a destructive rage. Despite being stapled to the wall by his iron, that stubborn blonde had smarted off, called him an idiot and said she felt _sorry for him_. That had impressed him because most people were shaking and crying before his more sadistic hobbies, but she kept that damn determined grin on her face. He remembered thinking that, despite himself, she had managed to impress him with her moxie.

Her surprising strength was established when Laxus went alpha-asshole and decided to try and purge the guild, and that damned bunny girl had smattered Bixlow. He was genuinely surprised about that, because despite her inclusion in "Fairy Tail's strongest team", he had always considered her to be generally weak. She may not have the physical strength that they had, but she knew how to use what she had in order to defeat her opponents - another grudging sliver of respect and a slight amount of awe.

Her actions in Edolas had secured their overall victory; if the bunny girl didn't carry Natsu and Wendy through to the capital city where Gajeel was fighting by himself to free the others, then they wouldn't have gotten through that. She was the only mage who could use her magic back then and guide the other two Dragon Slayers through the cities and to their malformed guild. She had stood her ground against great odds with little to no backup, and that had struck a good note with Gajeel. It was easy to see what a person was really made of in impossible odds, and the blonde bunny girl had more than pulled through while pulling all their weight.

But that was just his impersonal impression of her. Last night was the first time he had ever spoken with her without either of them being attacked and wounded, and despite all the things he had done to her over the past few months, she had tried to _care_ for him. She had read that dark part of him that was mourning the loss of Levi, that sweet girl who liked him for him, and had confronted him over it to try and help him. And now she had come to his aid when he needed it, clearly without regard for her own state, and cared for him and cleaned his wounds, sacrificing her only bed for his health.

She was crazy, without a doubt, but she was definitely his kind of crazy.

Gajeel grit his teeth, sucking in another breath before turning back to Pantherlily, who was watching him with curiosity. There were too many things clogging his senses right now, too many variables for him to properly wrap his mind around them all, so there was only one thing to do before his thoughts threatened to lapse in on themselves.

"Let's get out of here."

XXXXXX

Oddball Punk's awesomeness of questions:

1. I'm curious about what else Lucy did to Gajeel because there seems to be  
more than what was written last chapter if his reactions to her are anything  
to go by.

_In reference to when Lucy was drunk, I assumed; Lucy didn't really so anything more to Gajeel, it's more the fact that she can't remember all of what she did. Cue whacky images in her mind._

2. How the hell did Lucy get home if she was so hammered?  
_Lucy got home how all drunken Fairy Tail mages get home; Mirajane._


	4. The Sharpest Lives

Look within to find: ruined bedding (Lucy does not get a break); broke!Lucy (plotting ways to get money); blackmail (of one's not-so-friendly Dragon Slayer); caving in (of one's not-so-friendly Dragon Slayer); Gajeel being a jackass (seriously, I don't know why I warn that, it's his default mode)

Oddball Punk: You magnificent mind-reader, you! This is mostly based off the manga, because I think it goes more in-depth. And you get a better range of Gajeel's psycho!faces (seriously, when he decided that Lily was his cat = psycho!) There shall be some more wound tending, in the unconventional Fairy Tail way, because Gajeel is too tsundere to admit anything and Lucy is too hard-headed to turn away.

Exams and essays in University have been nuts lately, but I have next week off, so hopefully I can get another chapter uploaded before those assessments come back to spank me ~

Song by My Chemical Romance

XXXXXX

_Chapter 4 – The Sharpest Lives_

The first thing that Lucy was aware of was that there was a terrible pain in her neck. She couldn't quite understand how it happened or how it got there, but it hurt and she was reluctant to unravel herself either way. Lucy groaned as she unravelled her limbs from the odd position she had contorted herself in, knowing that there would be aches in her back, neck and legs all day. She cracked her eyes open with an unhappy noise, fuzzy mind turning over _why her blinds were open_.

That's when she realised that her bed was empty; more specifically, one Gajeel Redfox, injured Iron Dragon Slayer that she had dragged into her apartment, was missing. Her heart hammered at the open window and the implication of the missing Slayer. _Had Tartaros managed to track Gajeel back to her apartment? Had the dark guild snuck in and taken him right under Lucy's nose?_

But she noticed that his boots were gone, as was his ragged tunic that she had almost neurotically folded for something to do. There was no sign of a struggle, even in the bed's rumpled state, but the most important thing was that Pantherlily was not there. Even in their injured state, the exceed's senses combined with Gajeel's would not allow anyone to sneak up on him here, in such a limited little area.

And it was _just_ like Gajeel to leave without a word of notice, the jackass.

But something on the table, a loose sheaf of paper folded twice over with the short-hand scribbling on it _thank you, Lucy_. She could only assume that it was Pantherlily's chicken-scratch writing, because there was no way that Gajeel Redfox would ever say thank you, much less write it. It settled down her pounding heart at the idea that Tartaros had _been in her bedroom_, and pulled herself up via the table. Her legs groaned at being straightened out after spending so long being contorted in an odd position, but Lucy ignored the niggle.

It was like Gajeel had never been there, not a possession of the Iron Dragon Slayer anywhere to be seen. It was a bit disconcerting that he had decided to flee her apartment without waking her, what with him being that injured, but at least Lily had left her a message. Honestly, she would have liked to see him before he went, just to make sure he wasn't pushing himself after being attacked by all those mages. The Dragon Slayer didn't understand the need for limiting his actions, much like Natsu in that respect, and was too bull-headed for his own good.

Lucy stretched her arms out over her head, listening to her back pop quite satisfactorily even as her neck protested at being shifted from its weird sleeping angle. She stopped when her eyes cracked open once again, feeling them widen as she focused on something on her bed… _blood_. There was a pool of blood - okay, maybe pool as a bit dramatic - covering her sheets, exactly in the spot where Gajeel's side would have been if he was still here. Her brow furrowed as she peeled back the crumpled top sheet to inspect the brownish-red stain.

Lucy had long become accustomed to the sight of blood, and rarely worried about it when she knew that its owner was going to be okay. She had seen the wound on his side - about the size of her hand and very tender-looking, but she thought that she had staunched the bleeding when she packed cotton around it and bandaged it. Gajeel must have irritated it when he woke up and left her apartment. Lucy hoped that his injuries weren't giving him too much grief; Gajeel was a bit of a bastard, yes, but he wasn't as bad a guy as people liked to think he was.

Lucy sighed. She would have liked to see him, to see if he was really okay and not pulling some macho _bullshit_ like Natsu did. But the Iron Dragon Slayer was stubborn, more so than Natsu, and didn't like being around people at all, let alone when he was injured. It was part of the reason why Lucy thought he must be terribly lonely; he didn't trust his nakama enough to be vulnerable around them like they did him. Hell, Lucy couldn't _count_ the number of times she had broken down and Natsu, Gray and Erza had picked up the pieces.

Strangling back another sigh, Lucy gripped the corner of her fitted sheet and tugged it off her mattress, resigning herself to a day of laundry to get the blood stains out. Wadding up her sheets and tossing them in the corner, Lucy turned back to her bed to peel her pillow out of the case and - _fuck!_ The blood had soaked through her lovely white sheets and into the mattress, leaving a reddish-brown stain the side of her head right in the middle. A spike of anger welled up inside her, not at anyone in particular, but more to the fact that her bed was now _ruined_ and unusable.

With her teeth grit, Lucy gave the side of her mattress a savage kick that served no other purpose than to loose some of her temper. It wasn't Gajeel fault - Lucy knew that, but now she was going to have to use her precious saved-up rent money to buy herself a new bed. Throwing a mournful glance at her beloved white sheets and floral bedspread, Lucy condemned them to the bin along with her mattress. That would be _all_ of her precious rent money down the drain, but she very well couldn't live without a bed.

If she bought the bed, she'd have nowhere to put it because of her rent. If she payed her rent, then she'd have nowhere to sleep.

Lucy let loose the frustrated scream and kicked her mattress again, only serving to injure her foot this time instead of quelling her temper. _Just fucking great_. She'd now have to try and find herself a high-paying solo job and hope to finish it within a week's time before her rent was due. She had never been on a solo job before, and had gotten use to the firm support of Natsu and Happy at her side, along with the occasional tag-along of Erza and Gray. They provided not only support in the missions, but companionship and laughter and mass-murder pillow fights that were a dangerous prelude to someone's - usually Lucy's - emotional destruction.

Her eyes widened and her body froze. Gajeel may not be to fully blame here, but she might just be able to fandangle him into going on a mission with her. He may not be her number one choice of partners, but she was strong and capable and maybe she could talk him into it because _he owed her_. And he did owe her - nothing serious, because they were nakama and she liked to think that he would do the same for her, and this was a shot for her to pay off her rent _and_ get a bed. He did ruin it in the first place, so, hopefully, he'd feel obliged to help.

Lucy snorted. _Yeah, right_.

XXXXX

Lucy strode through the guild doors sometime in the early afternoon, a bag with new sheets and a bedspread hanging off her arm. The store was delivering a new mattress to her apartment later on in the evening, and she now officially only had a few hundred jewels to her name. Maybe just enough to buy herself dinner tonight if she didn't feel like cooking, but after that, she was so dead broke that it was _funny_ to her. She had been broke before, but never this badly. Her new mattress, sheets and bedspread had set her back not only her rent money, but also her emergency rainy-day fund as well.

Well, that was the point of having an emergency fund, but now she'd have to start one again all over from scratch.

Shuffling her bag on her arm, Lucy peered around the always rambunctious guild for her new _favourite_ Dragon Slayer, who had quickly become her new meal ticket in her mind. She didn't have to look past his usual spot at the end of the bar where he had nested down at, creating a buffer zone around himself and the rest of the guild. Now that he was suddenly _there_, and not all in her head, approaching him with her part proposition, part coercion had just become a monumental task.

Mentally slapping herself to man-up a little (_even though she was a girl_), Lucy summoned her hidden courage and walked to Gajeel with a confidence she didn't really feel. She passed Wendy, happily chattering away with Charle and Lily, who gave her an appreciative smile, and Lucy winked back at him. Lily was quite a nice exceed, despite his less than stellar introduction to their group as an enemy trying to kill their guild. But he was fitting in great, and made quick friends with Wendy, Charle and Erza, who admired his swordsmanship.

If Gajeel knew she was approaching, and he _did_, he didn't say a thing, or even acknowledge her. That part of his personality rankled her a little, but she had no idea about his upbringing to judge: only that he had been raised by a Dragon, like Natsu had; only Natsu had an apparent friendliness where Gajeel had the warmth and agreeability of a hedgehog.

"Good to see you up," Lucy said in way of greeting.

Gajeel actually stopped eating to look at her, his red eyes fixed on her with an intensity that had Lucy startled and squirming a little. And then the most amazing thing happened - it was slight and barely noticeable if you weren't looking for it - but Gajeel inclined his head in the slightest of nods. That was the Dragon Slayer's equivalent of a friendly handshake, and it left Lucy _floored_. That was _cordial_ and slightly nice - _holy sweet mother of all sacred things_.

Despite being vaguely stunned, Lucy slipped into the stool beside him, that she had once occupied while being three sheets to the wind and asking him all kinds of embarrassing things. Gajeel was back to eating, his eyes fixed down at his plate, and Lucy's wide eyes were drawn to his still bandaged forearm. She thought that he would've had Wendy fix up his wound for him, but apparently, he was still sporting them and letting them heal naturally. Her eyes darted over to the youngest Dragon Slayer, still talking animated with Lily, then back to Gajeel.

His burning red eyes were looking straight at her, apparently deciphering her train of thought with just a glance, and hiked a studded eyebrow up. Lucy imagined how this must look - people did not just casually sit next to Gajeel Redfox; they cowered from him and avoided him like the plague, not cosy down next to him and look slightly comfortable. While Gajeel was a very intimidating individual, Lucy knew that the only damage he would do to her was to her sanity; those few precious threads that had been overlooked by Natsu, Erza and Gray. She had already received her designated violence from Gajeel to last her lifetime, and she _knew_ that the only situation where Gajeel would go after her was if she betrayed the guild and attacked them.

_And that was likely to happen… never_.

"How're the war wounds?" Lucy asked.

Gajeel was still looking at her, his lips turned down slightly. Lucy knew how painful chest-wounds could be, and from the look of it when Lucy had cleaned it out, he had bruised a good portion of that side.

"Fine," he replied gruffly, turning away from her.

Lucy nodded, more to herself than anyone, but she had learnt over her time as Natsu's partner that Dragon Slayer's had an almost psychic ability to see out the corner of their eyes, not even mentioning hearing and scents. There was no doubt in her mind that he was hurting right now, and she wasn't referring to Levi this time. It didn't make much sense to Lucy that while Gajeel would risk his life to save the guild, he wouldn't trust its people enough to let them know he's hurting. He probably just didn't want t worry Wendy, she knew that, but he almost went out of his way to drive people away from him. There were only a few exceptions to that rule, and Lucy decided to make herself one, whether he liked it or not.

A glass of juice was suddenly set before her, and Lucy looked up to see Mirajane give her a warm smile before shuffling off to take the order of Wakaba and Macao. Lucy picked up her juice and looked into its colourful depths, trying to figure out a way to convince Gajeel to partner up with her for a job. She was desperate for that money now, if she wanted to both eat and have a roof over her head.

"You should really ask Wendy to heal you," Lucy found herself saying.

Gajeel cracked his teeth on a chunk of iron disturbingly loudly.

"It was a covert job. She doesn't need to know," Gajeel told her stonily.

He must know that Lily told her the basis of his job for Makarov, and clearly didn't want anyone involved, let alone her.

"Have you told Master Makarov yet?" Lucy asked.

Gajeel cracked the iron again and gave a brief nod to her question. It was disturbing that this was Gajeel being personable. There was a silence between them as Lucy sipped her juice, trying to think of a way to spread those few hundred jewels she had left to last her the week. It would be tight, but she would have to do it - _she would have to ask Gajeel for help._

Puffing out a breath between her lips, Lucy fiddled with the hem of her singlet, and turned her whole body on the stool to face Gajeel. There was no way she could afford to chicken out if she wanted to continue to _live_, so she grit her teeth and finally looked up. Gajeel was looking at her, his face unreadable, but Lucy thought he must be wondering _what the hell_ she wanted this time. Last time, she had made an ass out of herself by asking him all kinds of suggestive and inappropriate questions, then thrown herself on him and cried.

"Are you free for the next few days?"

She cringed at the way it sounded; like she was asking him out on some ridiculously long date or something. The only response she got was a raised studded eyebrow as his eyes locked with hers. They really were an odd colour; there were all kinds of natural colours here, mostly dark, but his were without a doubt the most odd and yet the most pretty. Lucy didn't think he'd react very well if she told him he had pretty eyes.

_It's sink or swim now_

"I need your help for a job -" Lucy began

"Not interested," Gajeel rejected, turning away from her.

Lucy's eye twitched at her sudden dismissal - she had _saved_ his sorry ass, the least he could do was hear her out! Clenching her jaw, Lucy shifted her barstool _closer_ to Gajeel, knowing that he wouldn't be able to completely ignore her with Lucy being so far into his very large personal space bubble. It was pretty dirty play, she knew, but she desperately needed the money and _he owed her_ and he was just being a jackass now, still ignoring her.

"I really need the money," Lucy told him, putting on her best puppy-eyes.

Gajeel growled. "No."

"Don't be an ass," Lucy hissed. "I'm desperate for the money or I won't make my rent."

"Not my problem," Gajeel ground out.

Okay, _now_ he was beginning to piss her off.

"It _is_ your problem," Lucy bit back, struggling to keep her voice down as to not cause a scene. "I had to spent my saved up rent money on a new bed because _you_ bled all over mine and ruined it!"

Gajeel finally looked at her, red eyes unreadable as he held her angry gaze. She refused to look away, maintaining his precision gaze, not willing to give up any ground. There was no way in hell she'd defer to that whackjob right now; not when her wellbeing teetered on the line without Natsu to save her, as usual. It was only now that he was gone did Lucy realise how much she took his unwavering support for granted.

"I did?"

It came out quieter than she expected, thinking that she was going to have to yell it out with the Iron Dragon Slayer. Lucy nodded vigorously, if for no other reason than to avert her eyes from his precise and slightly unnervingly predatory gaze.

He seemed to be mulling it over, so Lucy decided to add onto his thought process.

"My mattress and sheets were all bloody and it soaked through, so nothing could be saved. I had to spend all my rent and back-up money on getting a damn bed, and now I can't make my rent."

Gajeel was back to looking at her, but his predatory edge was gone, and instead a contemplative glaze covered them. It wasn't a look she was very used to seeing on the Dragon Slayer. Lucy knew Gajeel a little, and he would not be swayed by something like that solely. _Time to pull out the big guns_.

"Besides, you owe me," Lucy told him.

Now _that_ garnered her another intense stare. It seemed to be a pathological Dragon Slayer thing that they _hated_ being indebted to people, and since Gajeel wasn't especially close to her, it seemed all the more an amazing feat.

"I ran through the streets of Magnolia at ridiculous o-clock to save you, and you weight a _fuckin_' ridiculous amount to manoeuvre about," she told him.

She could see the creaky wheels turning in his head, and got a little worried when his lips twitched up into a half-smirk. _That_ never spelt out anything good.

"Speaking of which, why weren't you wearing pants?" Gajeel posed.

Lucy felt her face go flaming red, gritting her teeth in embarrassment as she willed Virgo to appear and dig her a hole to hide in. She had completely forgotten that she had run out into Magnolia in naught but a singlet and her panties, and it occurred to her that she had _never_ put on her shorts _before or after_ that. And that could only spell one thing - Gajeel had seen her in her undies. The mortification spread to colour her neck and ears red as well, and now Lucy was considering committing ritual suicide to escape the embarrassment.

But she _had_ run the streets in naught but her undies, and it was because she was _scared_. She had seen the blood on Pantherlily, his ragged state and heard his plea for help, and Lucy had been _terrified_. Any enemy strong enough to axe out both Pantherlily and Gajeel had to be powerful, and he looked so defenceless and hurt when Lucy had found him, slumped against an alley wall a good hundred metres from her apartment. Even Natsu didn't manage to reduce Gajeel to unconsciousness when they fought, and Natsu was the most destructive and damaging mage that Fairy Tail had.

"Shut up," Lucy sniffed. "I was really worried about -"

Lucy froze, the sentence half out of her mouth, eyes wide with horror. She had just almost-but-really-had admitted to _Gajeel_, of all people, that she had been worried about him. Gajeel seemed just as surprised as she did, but he recovered very quickly with an unreadable expression. Lucy had the uncomfortable feeling that he was trying to see _into_ her, and it made her want to duck and hide.

Luckily, she was saved from further embarrassment and having to go through with her seppuku plans by Wendy coming over.

"Hello, Lucy-san," Wendy said pleasantly.

Lucy felt a little of her anxiety wash away with the presence of the Sky Dragon Slayer; Wendy had that effect on people, even without her healing magic.

"Hey Wendy," Lucy replied warmly, with a smile on her face.

Wendy beamed back at her. Charle and Lily had come over with her, the female exceed standing beside her Slayer counterpart, while Lily flew up to stand on the counter between Gajeel and Lucy. Pantherlily took a few covert steps to the side and touched his paw to her hand on the counter, and Lucy took the silent gratitude with a warm smile to the exceed. She knew that Gajeel had seen that, but he let it go without drawing attention to it; if he did, it would bring his injuries into light.

"Gajeel-san, are you ready for the job tomorrow?" Wendy inquired politely.

_Ah_, so he already had a job planned with the youngest Slayer. Lucy smiled to herself mirthlessly, knowing that she should have suspected that the Dragon slayer wouldn't bother resting before lining up another job. She would now have to scour the request board for something that wasn't too dangerous and would pay well enough for her to pay off her rent by next week. Maybe she'd have to take a series of smaller jobs for the next week to work up the 70,000 jewels her rent cost - then maybe she'd have enough left over for food.

Well, if anything, Mirajane would take pity on her and feed her at the guild, like she did to so many who needed it. And maybe Master Makarov could line her up some non-lethal work for the council or something for the jewels.

"Yeah," Gajeel told her.

She tried not to look dejected as she skulled the last of her juice, resigning herself to an evening of scrambling for work. While her motivation for wanting to partner up with Gajeel was mostly money-orientated, she couldn't help but think that it would be intriguing to team up with the Slayer. He had shown her the other night that he wasn't completely anti-social, just very socially awkward, and it had given her a small sliver of hope that he might just _accept _her. _Why_ she wanted him to accept her was beyond her current comprehension, but she just _wanted_ it.

Gajeel was moving somewhere beside her, and his hand suddenly descended on the counter hard enough to make her (thankfully) empty juice glass tip over. Lucy startled to find him standing in the gap between their stools, his crimson eyes fixed onto hers.

"Train station, nine o-clock tomorrow morning. Be late and we leave without you."

Pantherlily had climbed up his arm while Gajeel spoke, now sitting on his shoulder while giving Lucy a splitting grin. The Iron Dragon Slayer didn't bother waiting for a response; he merely walked off to wherever he had to be, leaving Lucy there feeling a little stunned. _Gajeel_ had just _invited_ her on their job. She stared off into space as a smile crept over her face._ Maybe she was a little closer to that acceptance than she originally anticipated_.


	5. Mysterious Ways

Below the magic titles is: train riding (with a pair of Dragon Slayers); Wendy purring (so damned cute); perving (Gajeel is eye-candy); embarssed!Lucy (guess who got _caught_ perving?); Gajeel **not** being a jackass (someone call Superman, the world is tilting off its axis!)

_Jade-ed Fang_; I'm flattered ~ thank you. And yes, I likes the cookies. I love cookies. I have cookies three times a week ~

_GnarlyRockerchick_; I'm blushing a bit after reading your reviews ~ I'm glad you like it so. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy in my non-existent heart when people enjoy my writing.

Took quite a few liberties with locations and whatnot, because while there is a Fiore map, it's not all that detailed. So, basically winged the locations and whatnot. Also haven't edited this chappie, so if there's any mistakes or quirks or whatever, please tell me so I don't look like a jackass.

On a less cheerful note, I have assessment hell-verse coming up from next week onwards, so updates may be delayed. I'll try and keep on the ball, but exams come first, so sorry. You'd think university would give you time off for fanfiction writing, but they're surprisingly strict on that particular note. Buggery, eh?

Song by U2

XXXXXX

_Chapter 5 – Mysterious Ways_

It was so different sitting on a train with Gajeel than it was with Natsu. The two Dragon Slayers were as different as the sun and the moon, and thank the _stars_ that they were, because what the _hell_ would they do with two Natsu's or Gajeel's? Two Natsu's would actually manage to demolish a whole city next time around, and Gajeel was crazy enough just being one man, let alone two.

But it was kind of nice to compare the two, because when it boiled down to it all, Gajeel was actually quite train-approved and useful. It had never been easier to get a double seat on the train than with the two Dragon Slayers - even with Erza trying to 'persuade' people to move. It wasn't so much Wendy as it was Gajeel; sadly, Wendy was too little and quiet to be of much notice, and Lucy always got catcalls and whistles instead. But people moved out of the way when Gajeel zeroed in on a seat, creating a clear berth for the Slayer and refusing to sit before he had. Lucy knew it was more out of fear for the Slayer than anything else - he had reaped havoc on Magnolia before - but it was a little ridiculous.

She didn't see what there was to be afraid of Gajeel before; then again, she had already received her designated, very one-sided no-holds-barred beatdown from him already, so it was someone else's turn now. Besides, Gajeel would readily risk his life by jumping into an inter-dimensional portal to save everyone's asses from being liquefied into magical power and the trying to beat down _the entire royal army_ for his nakama, so what did _she_ have to worry about? Making her rent - that was it.

Gajeel took up one entire side of their double-facing seats with just himself and their bags, quite purposely deterring anyone from sitting beside him. Gajeel was a jackass with a heart of gold, but a _massive_ jackass nonetheless. But this was subverted somewhere in the back of Lucy's mind because _he had bought their train tickets_, out of his own money, and said nothing to them about it. Natsu sometimes half-payed for her rent, Gray often bought her dinner or lunch when out, Erza was known to bring her back cute clothing on trips; but never once had anyone done something as simple as pay for her train ticket.

Wendy was quite happy to be sitting next to Lucy, however, smiling sweetly and kicking her legs with the movement of the mostly-stationary train. Charle was sitting on the arm rest of Wendy's chair, her little arms crossed in usual petulance, while Lily was content to sprawl out over their luggage beside Gajeel. The white female exceed had been starting to loose her strictness ever since returning from Edolas, but she still kept a tight reign on Wendy. Not to be mean, but Lucy could see why; Wendy attracted a lot of attention, having 'mystical' feeling magic and all, and she was much too timid to drive people off herself. That was where Charle came in, deterring people from harassing the young Sky Dragon Slayer.

Lucy's lips twitched - Charle wasn't going to need to do that too much today with Gajeel around.

The train gave a warning whistle and a little lurch, signalling that it was only a few moments from taking off. Lucy could not count the amount of times that she had almost missed the train because of Natsu, more specifically, because he _didn't_ want to ride it. The Fire Dragon Slayer would walk everywhere if he could, even though it took forever and by the time they got to a city, the job they had taken had been already completed by a rival guild. It was almost nice to get on the train at a decent time so they didn't have to scramble for seats, and Erza didn't have to barge down the isle to claim the last set of double seats before someone else did.

"So, what's this job were doing?" Lucy asked.

Gajeel turned his red eyes to her, his studded eyebrow twitching. Lucy wondered about his reaction, before realising what she had just asked; she had come on a job without even asking about it beforehand. She could see the edge of his lips quirk up into a sardonic smirk, and Lucy resisted the urge to knee the man across from her. It wasn't that she didn't want to - _oh, how she longed to - _but it was more the fact that he had, after all, invited her to tag along when he could have easily told her to screw off. He was also much stronger than she was, and she'd only end up hurting herself if she tried it with the Iron Dragon Slayer.

It was Lily who spoke up, not Gajeel, who decided to turn and look out the window of the now-moving train. The little black exceed pulled a request flyer from within the stack of bags he was perched upon, and handed it over to Lucy.

"We're after a Guild-Hunter called Leeroy Jenkins," Panther Lily told her.

Guild-Hunters were freelance mages working for dark guilds, who purposely hunt mages in guilds and kill them. They usually joined the guild they were hunting in, single out the target they had been hired for, then informed the dark guild of the legal guild's inner working and schedule so the dark guild could attack and destroy the guild and their target.

"He's not a particularly good Guild-Hunter - he only got half the guild, so the rest of the guild sent out a request while they focused on rebuilding," Lily explained.

The flyer that Lily had handed her had a picture of a fairly ordinary-looking man, maybe mid 30-ish without any real distinguishing features. Well, _this_ was going to be a bitch and a half. Finding an ordinary man like _that_ in a town as big as Shirotsume - that would be like finding a needle in a haystack. She really wanted to mention this, but there must be a reason why Gajeel decided to let Wendy whet her teeth on this one; _he must know where this Leeroy Jenkins is_. Lucy didn't know how he knew, just that the Iron Dragon Slayer _knew_ something that he wasn't telling her.

Though when it came to tracking people, Gajeel had definitely proved that he was more than capable of following a thin scent across a crowded town - that's how he had found her before. There was an inherent usefulness in a Dragon Slayer's nose, and a part of Lucy realised why Gajeel had taken Wendy out on this job with him. Since returning from Edolas, Gajeel had been showing Wendy, in his own stony way, genuine affection in the way of actually semi-nice constructive criticism. The Sky Dragon Grandine had left Wendy at such a young age, much younger than the other two Dragon Slayers, and Lucy realised that Gajeel was _trying to train her_.

That's why he was taking her out with him; to let the little dragon hatchling whet her teeth and learn some tracking skills under the watchful and trained eye of the Iron Dragon Slayer. It was odd, but Lucy thought that Gajeel could do a much better job than Natsu could when it came to teaching the young girl - now there was a scary thought, _Gajeel teaching a child_. But Natsu was legendary among his team mates for, lacking of a better word, winging it and winning his fights through trial and error. Wendy didn't have the stamina and attack strength to do something like that like the two male Slayers could, but that was probably why Gajeel was there; to absorb the heavy blows and provide backup.

She felt a little out of place but also a little honoured that Gajeel had invited her to join in their request. Lucy knew that Dragon Slaying magics were a Lost Magic now, rare and highly sought after, but he still saw it fit to bring her along. Okay, so maybe she had emotionally blackmailed him a little to get the pay-day, and there was no way she could pick up such a complicated magic like Dragon Slaying, but it still touched her a little. In fact, that was probably why Gajeel hadn't been too hesitant about letting Lucy tag along; there was no way she could steal that kind of magic, even if she wanted it - she didn't really, she was more than happy with her celestial spirits.

It would be quite a few hours to Shirotsume, but that was much preferable than walking, which would take _days_ instead of hours. Now she wished that she had packed a book in her little hard-case suitcase that she always brought along, because this was going to be a very long trip full of very little conversations. She could talk to Wendy, but it was hard to tackle issues like strategies or even common mage issues with the girl; she was just too young to properly understand all that. Gajeel was as likely to speak to her as pigs were to fly; after all, all she had managed to elicit from the Iron Dragon Slayer was a few grunts.

Instead, she considered napping. She hadn't slept very well in her new bed; it was just too firm without the body imprints that Natsu had managed to develop on his many unwanted sleepovers, which Lucy had become so accustomed to rolling into. Lucy crossed her arms over her chest and leant against the window, letting her eyes close as the rattle of the train lulled her into a light doze. There was no need for her to be alert; both the Dragon Slayers and the exceed would know of danger long before Lucy would, and there was nothing else to do aside from shut her eyes and doze.

It was amazingly different to be travelling with the two Slayers so far, especially when it came to trains. What with Natsu's violent motion sickness, within the first minute of the trip he either ended up in Lucy or Erza's lap - Lucy's willingly and Erza's unwillingly, because it meant he was going to get hit - and Lucy would stroke down his spine and card her fingers through his hair to help quell his illness. On the occasions that he was in Erza's care, Lucy would sometimes play cards with Gray, or fall asleep on his shoulder if the trip was long. Erza would talk to them, about their requested job or her latest armour, and more often than not to Lucy, the latest dime-store bodice ripper she had read.

The train rumbled and rolled along for god-knows how long, and Lucy hovered in that blissful place where she wasn't actually asleep, but much too content and lazy to actually open her eyes. She wasn't sure when she had started, but she was humming quietly in time with the train, a random tune that she didn't really remember much of, but she could vaguely remember her mother singing when she was much younger. Wendy had fallen asleep about an hour after the train set off, sitting up straight until the train's motion eventually slumped her into Lucy's lap. She was pretty sure that's when the humming had started, and she used to hum that tone every now and then for Natsu as well, but he was too sick to ever take much notice of it.

She knew that they were about an hour out from Oshibana by now, where they had to get off before Clover Town to catch the connection to Shirotsume. Lucy considered waking Wendy, but was too content with her own lull to bother the littlest Dragon Slayer from her peaceful sleep on Lucy's lap. Instead, Lucy cracked her own eyes, blinking as they adjusted to the light of the train carriage. Wendy had curled her legs up on the seat where she had been sitting, now resting more than before on Lucy's legs, and it made her smile. Even though Wendy was the Sky Dragon Slayer, and even helped slay the mechanical Dragon Knight in Edolas, it was painfully obvious how young she was like this.

Lucy sink her fingers into Wendy's dark hair, carding through the thick locks and thinking, that after this job was over, that she'd share some of her good hair conditioner with the young girl, because it was starting to get split-ends and felt a little coarse. She was a beautiful girl, and as such, she should have hair that made her feel like that; Lucy knew it was silly, but sometimes that was all it took for _her_ to feel good about herself. Wendy made a little mewling sound as Lucy stroked her hair, almost like a kitten purring, and Lucy giggled at how sweet and cute she was, gently tugging the hair ornaments out of her hair to give more room for her finger-brushing.

She heard a noise come from across her, and Lucy glanced upwards. Gajeel had thrown one of his powerful legs up over their luggage at some point, which Pantherlily was using as a headrest while he slept. Charle had curled up over Wendy's prone legs, happily asleep, but that wasn't where the noise had come from. By all rights, Gajeel was asleep. His body language was calm, his chest rising and falling deeply but peacefully, his arms crossed loosely over his chest, face slack except for that one open red eye _looking at her_. Lucy was just staring at him, her hand still in Wendy's hair, despite the little Slayer's noise of protest, and she almost thought that he was sleeping with one eye open, but then he blinked.

_Of course_ Gajeel would be too paranoid to actually nod off with them there, that was a given, but what was more disconcerting was the thought that he could have very well been watching her the whole time. It wasn't really all his fault if he had, Lucy was sitting across from him, after all, but she was too used to having Erza across from her, eyes closed serenely or chatting away at Gray beside her. She had grown too accustomed to their quirks, and them to hers, that being around new people, even when it was just travelling for a few hours, made her nervous. If it was Gray or Erza looking at her, Lucy would brush it of, yawn loudly, and probably conk out again; but this was _Gajeel_.

His crimson eye was fixed on her, the narrow black pupil locked onto her sleepy eyes as she rapidly woke. Her fingers were back to carding through Wendy's hair, seeking some semblance of normality for her, and Wendy made a happy noise and went back into a deep sleep. Lucy broke her gaze from the Iron Dragon Slayer to look down at Wendy, her fingers curled into Lucy's skirt like a child with their mother, and Lucy felt the tension flee her. Lucy didn't remember much about her mother apart from the tuneless songs and her warm, soft hands, but she did remember sleeping against her like Wendy was. It was one of the few warm memories she had of her childhood, those of her mother, and it occurred to Lucy that Wendy never had those.

Wendy had been raised by Grandine, the Sky Dragon, who may have liked humans, but could never offer Wendy the warmth that another human could. She had been apart of Cait Shelter, the illusionary guild created just for her, but Lucy never really got the feeling that she was as close to them as Fairy Tail was to each other. Lucy began humming again, twisting her fingers in Wendy's long hair, and the little Dragon Slayer began making that mewl-purring noise that made Lucy smile. She could feel Gajeel still looking at her still, but it wasn't as off-putting as it was before; Lucy was just happy that Wendy was there, being her cherubic self without even knowing.

They would be in Oshibana soon enough, and she would have to rouse Wendy until they got onto their connection train, where she could safely fall asleep once again. Lucy let her eyes close once again, though not before peeking up at Gajeel. His eyes had shut, seemingly content with what he had witnessed, though the line of his jaw was hard like he was thinking. The Iron Dragon Slayer really did have a way of bottling things up that was really unhealthy. Lucy sometimes did that, but Natsu was usually there to pry it out until she just began crying and Natsu flailed about, trying to think of a way to calm her. Gray would whack him upside the head for seemingly upsetting her, and Erza would crash Lucy's head to her steely bosom and tell her to cry it out, if a little dramatically.

Gajeel never really had anything like that, Lucy thought. Wendy had Charle, and although the white exceed was just as surly as Gajeel, she genuinely cared for Wendy and showed concern for her. Gajeel had only recently gotten Pantherlily, and before the black exceed came along, Gajeel was completely alone - Gajeel didn't seem to emote apart from channelling all his feelings into a usually one-sided beat-down to make himself feel better. She wondered, that if Gajeel had had a partner like Wendy had to support her in battle and emotionally, if he would have turned out differently - it amused her to think that he could have turned out like timid little Wendy. But then again, he wouldn't have been Gajeel if he had, and it was all his quirks that made him who he was.

Who he was now was the sum of his life experiences; that life that must have been hard and long, and mostly lonely and very violent, but they had turned him into what he was now. And he was a stand-offish, often violent man with a love for cats and a nearly compulsive need to keep everyone at arms length. He didn't care how one-sided a fight was (_and they often were_), or if his opponent was man, woman or child (_very occasionally)_; if they threatened his way, his life or his guild, Gajeel would beat the crap out of them. Sometimes even those in his own guild even, though it was vastly limited to Natsu and, on occasion, Gray - he had sparred with Erza once, that Lucy had seen, and didn't seem very eagre to do so again, not that she could blame him.

Cracking her eye open very slowly, Lucy saw that Gajeel still had his angular eyes closed and seemingly asleep. She could tell from her body language, however, that he could leap up at any moment now and slash an enemy to ribbons before either her or Wendy could wake up. It was the same body language that Erza adapted when they stopped to rest during a job, like there was an enemy around the corner that only she could perceive, even though Natsu's nose and ears would pick it up first. It struck Lucy as very wrong, that he should have to be like that. He would jump into the anima to save them all, but he wouldn't trust his back to them, _to her?_

His jaw was still tense, his teeth grinding every now and then - he must be pretty deep in thought not to notice that she was looking at him now. Then again, Wendy was still making those little purring noises, so Gajeel didn't really have much of an indication, at least, that's what she thought. His face was all hard angles and piercings, with jagged dragon-like teeth and sharp, angular eyes, and it was because of this that Gajeel could look very cruel and intimidating to people. It wasn't really admitted, but a good deal of Fairy Tail were intimidated or put-off by the Iron Dragon Slayer, which really was a pity because Lucy knew that, deep down, he was a very good man.

And when he was like this, silent and without those piercing red eyes, he was quite an attractive fellow. Those hard angles that made him cruel to others were actually quite alluring; the strength of his jaw and the subtle curve of his mouth, the angular shape of his eyes and the lines of studs that sat where his eyebrows should have been. The piercings down his nose and chin drew attention to his strong features, and the multiple piercings he had along his ears added to the emphasis of him; he was Gajeel Redfox, raised by a dragon, and one of the few Dragon Slayers out there. He was thickly muscled, his shoulders square and broad, metal studs decorating his forearms like badges of honour. His arm was still bandaged, though not as heavily as before as to not draw the attention of the smaller Slayer in Lucy's lap, still purring away like a kitten than a Dragon.

Once again, Lucy was presented with the chance to look Gajeel over, without his knowledge, as the Dragon Slayer silently meditated on whatever went on in his head. The way he was reclining stretched his usually loose white pants tight over his powerful thighs, his metal-lined boots almost sticking out into the isle, and it drew Lucy's attention. Every hard line and sharp edge that made up Gajeel screamed power and strength, like you could hit him with a hammer and he'd just scoff and shake it off, and Lucy knew from recent personal experience how heavy all that muscle and metal made him; no doubt perfect for fighting and endurance. If he ever decided to, Lucy thought that he could kill her just by sitting on her.

"You're staring," Gajeel said gruffly.

He cracked a red eye open, no doubt just in time to see her face turn red, blush creeping down her neck and along her ears. Lucy _knew_ how it looked - like she was checking him out. She wasn't - well, she _was_, but not in that way - and promptly began to stammer out denials while shaking her head vigorously. He really had the wrong idea about her; yes, he was attractive in his own way, but Lucy _wasn't_ interested in him. Mostly.

She gave up on speaking and instead settled into mortified, and slightly angry because of the very ego-happy grin on the Iron Dragon Slayer's face, and if it was Gray, she would have tried to beat his head in with her suitcase. But Gray always laughed it off - he could defend himself very well for someone who laughed as much as he did - and doing such a casual interaction with Gajeel would land her somewhere unpredictable - and unpaid.

Instead, Lucy sucked it up, glared at Gajeel, and roused Wendy from her sleep.

XXXXXX

_Author's note: you know, it was actually a little challenging to write Gajeel in a non-jackass manner. He's slowly mellowing out towards Lucy, but don't worry - he will **never** loose that jackass personality of his. Well, I suppose he's still a bit of a ass in this chapter - think he's still in character? I'm not sure but I like it ~_

_Cookies to the first person who gets the Leeroy Jenkins reference ~_


	6. Trouble

This pertains; Gajeel's cunning plans (!), Gajeel being intimidating (Gajeel being Gajeel); Gajeel being a jackass (read last brackets); brawls (a commonality); angry!Leo (don't get between him and Lucy; asskicking!Lucy (I really think she's strong, but gets so overshadowed by Natsu and whatnot).

Hey everybody! I'm, baaack ~ Sorry about such a wait, peeps, but I've had very bad health problems… actually, I've been diagnosed with a bone tumor. It's not a comfortable prognosis, but we won't know more for another month or so. On top of that, I've been helping my sister who has a chronic disease, and it's been exam period at University. Not a good time to be me. Wish me luck.

But I'll keep writing. This is for all you people who never lost faith in me

Song by Pink

_Chapter 6 – Trouble_

As a mage, more specifically, as Fairy Tail mage, Lucy had found herself in a lot of bizarre - and not to mention life-threatening - situations in her life. In fact, the number of _normal_ circumstances she had found herself in since joining Fairy Tail could be counted on one hand - _and this one came nowhere close to normal_. It would be more normal for Natsu and Gray to be _friendly_ to each other, and for Erza to be non-violent in asking questions, and for Elfman to _not_ be manly… well, you get the idea. _This was not normal._

"Gajeel?" Lucy ventured quietly.

Said Dragon Slayer grunted from across for her, and Lucy kept her eyes carefully down on her cup. Her _teacup_.

"Why are we drinking tea?"

It was the only thing she could think of saying, and Lucy took a moment to examine how they had reached this point. They had caught their connection at Oshibana, a tiny town with a massive train-exchange, and gone straight onto Shirotsume. Lucy would have liked to have looked around Oshibana a little more - it has that quaint small-town charm to it, but some gentle prodding from Gajeel (_let's fucking go already!_) had them all on their way.

Shirotsume was a large town - almost a city - that was renowned for its nightlife, sweets and candy stores, and the fact that anyone could fade away in such a large town. She had only been here once before, briefly passing through on their way to address the Nirvana incident, and she had always wanted the time to look around its famous market and candy stalls. Gajeel seemed fairly familiar with the town as he guided them to a mage-friendly hotel (_of whom the clerk seemed scared of Gajeel_), paid upfront with _his own money_, dumped their bags in and left. It was disconcerting to a point that Gajeel had everything so utterly planned out so far, and Gajeel was the type of man who _never_ had a plan.

But that didn't explain why they were in the seedier part of town with Wendy in tow as they drank _tea_ outside the dodgy diner. It came in wonky, ill-patterned cups and Lucy was pretty sure that a blend like that never existed, and that Gajeel's had some kind of alcohol in it. Wendy took it as it came, she'd give her that, because the littlest Dragon Slayer drank her tea in relative silence and calmness. While downright _weird_, it was kind of flattering that Gajeel had paid for everything so far - not that he had a choice, with Lucy being flat-broke and Wendy only a little better off.

"We're waiting," was Gajeel stoic reply.

Lucy eyed him.

"Waiting for what?" she asked

"You'll know it when you see it," Gajeel replied, then paused for a second. "Like porn."

Lucy was taking a mouthful of bitter, watery tea when he said that, and promptly choked. Wendy blushed redder than a tomato, and Lucy levelled a glare at him over the rim of her gaudy cup, and Gajeel looked oddly smug at the rise he had gotten out of her. Lucy resisted the urge to hit him - any other man and she would of, but she was living off his _good graces_ for the time being.

Heh. Gajeel's good graces. Now there are words that Lucy never thought she'd put together.

Gajeel slapped his empty teacup on the table - _boy, did he look ridiculous holding a delicate little teacup_ - and Lucy gulped down the rest of her watery tea to catch up. He was already standing and 'guiding' Wendy up and away from the diner when Lucy had finished her tea, and she hurried up to stand beside him as he waited _for her_. Lucy couldn't get a handle on Gajeel at all. He did horribly brisk things like pushing her around, he prodded and poked her until she lashed out, but then he waited for her to catch up and paid for her tea and their lodgings. He was an incredible contradiction.

He took off at a decent pace when Lucy approached, and she had to take two steps to catch up to one of his. Poor Wendy was almost having to run, and Lucy took pity on her by reaching out and resting a hand on Gajeel elbow. It was just above his bandaged forearm, and it did succeed in slowing down Gajeel to an almost-normal pace, which was good because poor Wendy was almost panting and Lucy couldn't walk comfortably that fast in her heels.

"Gajeel, why are we here," Lucy asked, gesturing to the seedy streets they were traversing.

"We're waiting," Gajeel repeated.

She didn't even notice that her hand stayed on the crook of his arm until she tried to hit him in response, and promptly dropped her hand back to her side with a blush. Gajeel didn't say a thing, the stoic bastard keeping his face in its usual expression - _somewhere between annoyed and angry_. Lucy felt the urge to duck away from him, but that would send across the wrong; that would say that she was intimidated by him. But she was Lucy Heartfilia, and _hell be damned_ if she was going to cow down to anyone, let alone Gajeel. Still, when they turned to her, his blood-red eyes did stir her a little, if not because of the intensity that Gajeel always seemed to carry.

"Why?" Lucy settled for bemoaning. "Why are we waiting here?"

"It's like…"

"If you say what I think you're going to say, I'll aim for the ribs next time," Lucy warned.

Gajeel gave a dark chuckle, and Lucy really wanted to hit him somewhere it would _really_ hurt. It would serve the bastard right. But history has shown what happens when one tries to hit Gajeel Redfox, and it doesn't end well for that particular party.

"Why am I going along with this?" Lucy sighed loudly.

Gajeel's lip twitched upwards in a sardonic smirk, and Lucy kind of regretted ever coming along with this weirdo. But she desperately needed the money, and she couldn't fall back on the charity of Erza, Gray or Natsu this time, because they had up and left her. Then again, Lucy supposed it was a good thing they had temporarily abandoned her, because if they hadn't, then Lucy had no idea how Gajeel would still be alive. She could tell that he was still favouring his left side, overcompensating for his wounds, and every now and then he would flinch when his ribs were provoked.

It was probably time to change those dressings on him, anyway.

"When we get back, let me have a look at those," Lucy said, looking pointedly in the direction on his chest wounds.

Gajeel snorted arrogantly, as usual, but didn't rebuke her demand, and they fell into an odd sort of silence. Lucy followed alongside Gajeel as he, well, Lucy couldn't really say he had a plotted course, he just really meandered along busy roads in what were possibly the worst districts in Shirotsume. Wendy was sliding herself closer and closer to Gajeel that the blonde worried that their littlest Dragon Slayer might try to _attach_ herself t the elder Slayer. But Lucy could hardly say that this was a safe area for a young girl like Wendy to be in, mage or no.

And Lucy didn't like the looks they were getting. She could swear that people were just staring at them, but Lucy couldn't imagine a place where they looked at home; a large and brooding man, a buxom blonde and a young girl. They were attracting all sorts of attention to them, and Lucy could have sworn that she had seen _that_ guy at leats three times now… that's when she caught onto Gajeel's plan a little too late.

"We're bait," Lucy hissed angrily.

At the same time, she reached back and grabbed Wendy's hand, pulling the young girl up and between them. Lucy had almost forgotten the exceed until Pantherlily settled on her shoulder and Charle huffed to catch up to them. Gajeel looked greatly amused (for Gajeel), as he folded his arms back behind his head nonchalantly, only to wince a little from pulling at his injuries and bruises. Serves the bastard right.

Even Natsu, who was the king of bad plans, would _never_ use her as bait, even without telling her. Okay, there was that one time where they first met that Lucy thought that he had baited her out, but it turned out that he really was that stupid. If Erza knew of this, then she would beat the shit out of Gajeel without a moment's hesitation, but then that little voice in Lucy's head reminded her that _Erza wasn't there to cover for her this time_. Neither was Gray or Natsu. She was with Wendy, who while sweet and adequate, couldn't hold her own in a physical confrontation, and Gajeel, who was basically a walking bulldozer with a temper.

This would be interesting…

"'Bout time," Gajeel rumbled under his breath, and Lucy got the sneaky suspicion that he wasn't talking to her.

Swivelling behind Wendy, Gajeel grabbed Lucy's arm and yanked her into an oncoming alley. Staying behind Wendy and in firm control of Lucy, Gajeel directed them down the dank alley, wheeling and turning and _Lucy could hear footsteps behind them_. When they came to a fork in the path, Gajeel went left, and Lucy could see people in the right branch of the tunnel. They weren't escaping, Lucy realised, they were being _herded._ She turned her eyes to Gajeel, looking for something, anything…

He was grinning.

They weren't being herded; Gajeel was in complete control. And Lucy found out pretty damn quickly where they were being 'chased' to.

It was less climactic than she had expected, but to say they had 'burst' out of the alley would be accurate. It was a massive space between alley tunnels that was _swarming_ with mages, all _staring_ at them and _oh God, Gajeel had led them purposely into a trap._ And it was a bloody big trap. They were bait. Trapped bait.

_That bastard_! Lucy levelled her fiercest glare at Gajeel, but the Dragon Slayer had his patented shit-eating psycho grin going on, staring down the _horde_ of mages before them. _Fucking Gajeel_. She would be avenged. Natsu and Erza and Gray would avenge her, because although they might have left her behind, they still loved her (_Lucy_ _assumed_), and would avenge her untimely demise at the tender age of 17. And if Lucy was going down, _then she was bringing Gajeel with her_.

Lucy opened her mouth, to scream or shout or verbally murder Gajeel, or some combination of all three, when she was interrupted before she could begin.

"So, you thought you could catch the Great Leeroy, eh?" a man boomed before them.

And there he was, standing on some kind of _podium_ made of out old boxes and wood,above the masses of mages. Completely ordinary and unassuming, Lucy recognised the face of Leeroy Jenkins from the wanted flyer that Pantherlily had showed her on the train. And all she could do was stare. He was supposed to be in hiding… it was like asking Natsu to be subtle. In fact, Lucy could already see similarities between the two…

There was a very nervous looking young man clambering up the side of the off-kilter box podium, trying to talk to the guild hunter atop of them.

"Leeroy-san, shouldn't we stick to then plan…"

"CHARGE!" Leeroy hollered in response.

Lucy felt her heart drop into her stomach. Was that idiot really…

Yes. Yes he was. He was roaring for his fellow mages to fly head-long into battle, no plan, spur of the moment.

And Gajeel roared back. Pandemonium broke through the area as the Dragon Slayer's _Tetsuryu no Houko_ tore through at least seven mages, sending them flying back as the metal shards tore at them. That was the initial wave, and Gajeel had _decimated_ them. The mages looked unsure now, hesitant to move forwards into what they presumed was the larger male's strike zone, so Gajeel went to them. He was quick to charge into the fray, and looked ridiculously happy to be _finally_ getting his hands dirty - - Lucy had come to realise that Gajeel liked to be doing things, not thinking about doing them, which was why he was a very physical person.

Pantherlily had already entered his Battle Shill mode, easily gaining height and bulk over Gajeel, and slammed a few people into submission with his powerful fists. The two were really something to behold, and they seemed to be moving purposely in their chaos, creating openings and yet shielding the bulk of influx from the girls behind them.

Lucy ducked down quickly enough to dodge as something went fly just where her head should have been, and Charle decided it was too hazardous to keep Wendy down there and scooped her up into the air. Wasting no more time, Lucy grabbed her keys and went for Loki's key, knowing where it was by touch, and wrapped her fingers around the shimmering gold of her strongest spirit's key. She was not going to stay behind and be protected by Gajeel - Gray usually fought alongside her while Natsu rushed off and Erza went after him, the ice mage supporting her while letting her fight. Lucy knew she wasn't as strong as they were, but there was no way that she wasn't going to at least _try_ to pull her own weight.

Loki came out before Lucy could even summon him from the key, opening his gate through force and with little drain on her own magical powers. His fingers clad in light, Loki took a sharp swipe at a nearby enemy mage, smattering him to the ground as the lion rounded to Lucy. She gave him a smile, her fingers clasped around her whip, and the Leo gave her a charming grin before turning to join the fray with Gajeel and Lily, at Lucy's side. The Stellar Spirit Mage edged closer to the battle, her _fleuve__ d'étoiles _lashing out in a flash of blue-yellow spirit power to catch a nearby attacker and smack him away.

A flick of her wrist had her whip changing directions as smoothly as fluid, wrapping itself around a particularly burly man and holding him still long enough for Loki to smash a Regulus into his gut. It was the way they worked together, and they worked together well; Lucy incapacitated and fended off people, lining them up so Loki could take heavy hits to them with his Regulus, which usually resulted in a one-shot K.O. Lucy veered off from the protective shelter that Lily and Gajeel had created behind them, instead protecting their vulnerable left flank where Charle was hovering with the quickly-tiring Sky Dragon Slayer. She found herself hip to hip with the Leo, her whip creating colorful arcs across their vision as she clipped anybody within range, and Loki would move no more than a few steps away to attack before moving back to Lucy's side.

She felt more than heard Wendy let loose a roar of her own, though it didn't have the power that Gajeel had put into his. The rush of air ruffled her hair as it sent sailing in the opposite side to their only-just exposed flank as they methodically bludgeoned their way through the mass of mages. Wendy seemed to be struggling along, but she was fairly safe from physical attacks with Charle weaving through the air to miss those few aerial attacks. One of the bastards were getting in close to hit her with ranged magic, so Lucy lashed out with her _fleuve d'étoiles_ and, using the momentum, slammed her attacker into the alley wall, knocking them cold. Lucy looked back long enough to give the little Dragon Slayer a smile before inching herself further into the battle.

There was someone coming at the side of Gajeel, Lily having moved away to make sure that Leeroy Jenkins didn't escape in the fray, and Gajeel was too busy exchanging blows with someone bigger than him to notice the lithe person slipping into his range. Loki yelled at her when she dashed out of his cover, her whip responding to her will to _get that little fucker_; she didn't actually have to move her hands for her whip to respond, but if she did, it gained an extra force behind it that translated into the blows it dealt. With the frantic and powerful snap she gave it, the sliver of light sailed past Gajeel's back by a hairsbreadth and cracked loudly against the sneaky mage's face. He flew back, howling in pain as Lucy flicked her wrist, curling the coils of her _fleuve d'étoiles _around the lithe man, and snapped her hand to send him flinging across the area.

Gajeel dealt a crushing blow to the mage before him and half-turned back to Lucy, who had now insinuated herself a little behind and to the side of him, defending his injured side. He would absolutely hate the idea of Lucy covering up a weakness of his, and it _was_ a weakness, a handicap, but she could see that he was heavily favoring his other side. Gajeel was tiring, not that he'd ever admit it.

Loki was on the other side of the arena they had created, roaring and dealing blows to all those between him and Lucy. The Leo looked almost frantic, and Lucy almost stalled in her own battle when Loki lost his temper and punched a mage into the brick wall. _Into it_. He was really wedged in there. There were still mages to fight, thinning though they were, but they seemed reluctant to get in between Loki and a direct path to her. It was lucky that Loki crossed over to her when he did, because although he had opened the Gate himself, her magical energy was beginning to get dangerously low.

Charle had dropped Wendy back down because her Aera had worn off, and the littlest Dragon Slayer seemed a little wobbly on her feet, but determined to pull her own weight and get some recognition from Gajeel - and Gajeel seemed as lively as ever, throwing punches as often as he did his _Tetsuryukon_. Luckily the amount of enemies they were facing had taken a dramatic nosedive, most of them smattered on the floor around the Iron Dragon Slayer, and the few left seemed to be weighing the options of fleeing vs. facing Iron Gajeel.

Needless to say, they fled.

Soon Fairy Tail mages were the only ones left standing, and Gajeel flexed his muscles on instinct and to work out the cricks from the fight. His tunic was dirty and splattered with blood - most of it not his own - but apart from that, the Dragon Slayer seemed completely fine. He did manage to split his knuckles from punching people too hard, but Lucy doubted that counted as an injury in his books; it was probably a regular injury for the man. Wendy was standing on her own feet, Charle locked securely in her arms, with Loki pressing a large hand to her shoulder in praise.

_Wait a minute… where was Pantherlily?_

"That way!"

Pantherlily was teeny-tiny again, and seemed to have his own collection of cuts and bruises. He seemed okay, but _there was no Leeroy Jenkins_.

"Jenkins went that way!" Lily shouted.

Gajeel grinned, licked his lips, and thundered after Leeroy Jenkins. All Lucy could do was follow and pray that he didn't cause more property damage than what they could pay.


	7. Hunt You Down

Contain-eth within-eth: Gajeel _hunting_ people (damn-near terrifying); angry!Lucy (Gajeel certainly knows how to push buttons); reflections upon the Dragon Slayer natures (how to tutor your orphan Sky Dragon Slayer 101); angry banter (Lucy has panties of steel); dominant!Gajeel (_mmm, yum_); groping (of the Lucy kind)

Song by Saliva

XXXXXX

_Chapter 7 – Hunt You Down_

This was how it was supposed to be. Heart pounding in his chest, adrenalin flowing throughout his veins, wounds and limbs aching, _but this was right_. This was it. Not hip deep in _idiotically_-weak fighters who could barely be called mages while trying to keep an eye on two errant girls. Now was _the hunt_, the bloodrush that came with the chase, the _pursuit_ of prey. That delusional _bastard_ Leeroy Jenkins actually thought that he could outrun them, not know that at any second he wanted, Gajeel could _crush him_. He could speed up and stomp him into the ground, or he could use a roar to tear him to shreds in the narrow alley they were pursuing him down, or even his _Tetsuryūken _to slice away his ankle tendons, but he _didn't_.

_Because this, this was fun._

The adrenalin was flowing, his muscles aching for a fight, his lips curled up into a smirk he wore most of his days in Phantom Lord as his prey scrambled along not ten feet ahead of him. Nothing would please Gajeel more than to speed up just that little bit and _tear_ Leeroy Jenkins apart, but this wasn't _his hunt_, this was Wendy's. The whole point of his mission in the first place was Wendy. The girl had been separated from her dragon parent much too early for Grandine to teach her anything for her own self defense, and Wendy couldn't rely on him and the flame-brain for the rest of her life. She had the makings of a great mage in her, all Dragon Slayers did, and she just needed to sharpen and hone those skills that she wasn't even aware that she had.

And even though this was Wendy's hunt, the girl was sadly lagging behind both him and the bunny girl.

"Hurry up," Gajeel shouted back.

He could hear the click-clack of Lucy's heels not far behind him, and she was keeping up remarkably well for someone as ill-dressed, tired and angry as she was. She was quite _sexy_ in his eyes when she was about to blow her top like this, and it gave him a certain thrill to see her like in this state; pissed to the point where she was trying to race _him_ in high heels. The bunny girl was a hell of a force to be reckoned with when she was riled up like this, and already twice she had clipped then man in front of him with her whip, only to have him barely escape. Gajeel felt a sliver of pride when she did, when she joined on in the hunt, but then he had to check himself into order so he didn't take down what he had decided to be Wendy's prey. His only business now was to make sure Jenkins didn't get away from her.

That bastard Jenkins they were chasing hadn't quite figured out that Gajeel was just provoking him into a winding game of cat-and-mouse - and Gajeel could end it anytime he wanted to. And that was a good thing, he guessed, because Wendy was lagging behind, puffing as she tried to keep her small legs going to keep up with the adults. He could only hear Wendy's breath, but out of the corner of his eye, he could see the blonde struggling along behind him. At first, he had been against the idea of the bunny girl tagging along on their job. He had wanted to teach Wendy solo the joys of being a Dragon Slayer, and the bunny girl often served as more eye candy or a distraction than a working part of a hunting party. Gajeel was almost glad that she had tagged along now, because the blonde was turning into a good influence on Wendy, who had never really had a female human role model - Lucy wasn't weak, if a little self-deprecating, and wasn't afraid to throw herself out there to get their mark.

But it was good that the bunny girl was motivated right now, because Wendy was watching both her and Gajeel for clues on how to act; manic running with a slight sadistic glee seemed the norm. Lucy was alternating between scowling at Gajeel and glaring at their prey, and she was running surprisingly well for wearing heels that high - Wendy was starting to catch up, getting used to the sudden pace, but _still_ not fast enough. At this rate, the girl would never reach their prey to take him down - in Gajeel's first manhunt, he had taken his prey down within the first few minutes of the chase, before he developed a taste for the hunt - and he was going to have to intervene if Wendy was going to net any experience from this chase.

It was a simple manner to summon a jagged-sharp shard of iron into his fingers, and just as simple to flick his fingers, sending the strip of iron flying into their mark's thigh. It did exactly what Gajeel wanted it to do - it crippled his leg just that little bit to slow down his pace, Gajeel dropping back to match Jenkins's pace. Lucy caught up easy enough with the slightly lowered pace, her _fleuve d'étoiles_ whip poised for battle, but she was not taking the shot. She seemed to have realized that Gajeel didn't want Leeroy downed just yet, and that blonde was smarter than she often let on. Lucy fell back into a supportive role, her hand still clenched around her whip, but Gajeel could see it in the lines of her body that she was ready to jump from defensive to offensive and _nail the fucker._ Smart girl.

She had probably realized by now that this job they had taken, _hunting the Guild Hunter_, was for the benefit of Wendy - for Gajeel to help teach her those skills that Grandine never had the chance to. Grandine, as he had heard, had a fairly positive outlook on people, and believed in their kindness and passed that along to her child, Wendy. Metalicana didn't care an inch for people, except for those inside his very small circle of caring, which was pretty much limited to Gajeel while he was growing up. It was one of the many things that Metalicana had imparted upon Gajeel during his youth; _people were idiots and were always getting into trouble_. That was pretty much Fairy Tail down to a T, but they had a miraculous ability to dig themselves out, and come out on top.

Metalicana had never told him that; that even if you lost the battle, you could win the war. In his defence, Metalicana had never been defeated (_no one was stupid enough to pick a fight with a very short-tempered, full-grown dragon)_, and until Natsu came along, neither had Gajeel. And it was all for - all because of - the woman now running along beside him, her heels clicking loudly and her face marred with determination; the woman that he had, and quite gleefully, beaten to a pulp and had somehow, now, formed a terse, competitive companionship with.

If there was one thing that was baffling to him, it was _why_ the bunny girl didn't hate him for what he had done to her; even Levy, who he had soldered to a tree and painted his old guild symbol upon, was always a little weary of him. And he had done much worse to Lucy, and she showed not an ounce of fear for him; instead she stuck her tongue out at him petulantly, occasionally bitched him out, and looked like she wanted to hit him half of the time. Gajeel had never met such an abrasive, fearless, head-strong woman before, and it was almost as irritating as it was interesting.

He wasn't quite sure what to expect when she first toddled over to him those few nights ago, probably for her to begin a tirade about what he had done to her; all he knew was he wasn't expecting what she had babbled on about. He wasn't expecting the barrage of personal and very vexing questions, nor the sudden grab-and-sob she had pulled, which quickly went back to emotional prying and dirty questions.

She was a well-formed body of contradictions, _still glaring at him_, but not butting in until she was clearly given a signal; he really shouldn't be all that surprised - Lucy was a Dragon Slayer's partner, after all.

"Move it," Gajeel shouted back behind them at the Sky Dragon Slayer. "Out in front, girl!"

Lucy leveled what should have been a very fierce glare at him, but it had little impact on him other than a derisive snort - while she may be strong, he could still paste her to the floor. Then again, he found no reason to feel threatened by her - she was more like a riled bunny rabbit than anything - and she had never done anything to make him feel threatened. In fact, a begrudging part of him wanted to admit that not only she was a good influence on Wendy, but also acceptable company for travelling; she wasn't annoying or half as spastic as the rest of their guild, let alone her usual team.

Gajeel grit his teeth at his current line of thought and turned his mind back to the hunt; it was all for the girl's benefit, not for his or the bunny girl's, but she was _still_ lagging. Wendy _was_ a Dragon Slayer, and there was no room for timid and shy behaviour with their particular brand of magic. She needed to get her act together, because there _will_ be people out there after her unique brand of Lost Magic, and she needed to be able to defend herself - at least until he or the flame-brain got there. And even then, they wouldn't be around forever to guard her from the shadows, so she needed to pick up and hone her skills quickly - he couldn't deny that he looked forward to hunting with her as an equal.

"You don't have to be so mean to her," Lucy huffed, keeping stride with him with a little difficulty.

Gajeel grunted. "She has to learn this."

It didn't stop the blonde woman from deepening her scowl at him.

"Ever heard of positive reinforcement?" Lucy growled back.

"And what part of being nice to her will get her ass into gear?" Gajeel shot back.

"You're a jackass, you know that?" Lucy hissed.

Gajeel growled in the back of his throat, both irritated by her and yet impressed with her moxie. There were very few people out there with the stones to cuss him out, and he never thought he'd be putting the blonde mage in that particular category. Metalicana hadn't raised him to be a touchy-feely love-love person; Metalicana had raised a survivor, a hunter and a warrior; a true Dragon Slayer with all the powers that equated to one. Gajeel wanted to say that Grandine had coddled her too much, but Wendy had been separated from her much too early to learn anything apart from healing and supplementary spells.

"_Screw off_," Gajeel muttered, returning to his normal response.

"_Screw you,_" Lucy hissed back to him. "Come on, Wendy-chan!"

He grit his teeth to keep himself from pushing her into that particularly dark twist in the alley they just passed, or quite possibly, with the way her hips were moving as she ran, from reaching out and smacking her rump. Gajeel pushed that thought away as adrenalin from the hunt, now determined to ignore it, and put his full focus into their _prey_ ahead of him. Apparently, their _mark_ had decided to veer off into a particularly dark and rank arm of the alley, and the smell was almost overpowering as Gajeel followed, but the wound that Gajeel had inflicted had _bled_. That scent was now embedded in his mind, easy to follow like a second nature, and there was _no escape_ for him now.

Little Wendy had finally caught up to him and Lucy, pushing in between them to get in front, and Gajeel felt a little proud that she would push them out the way to take charge of the hunt. It was the first indication that she had Dragon Slayer instincts, even if she had picked a difficult place to overtake the hunt; in the dark with no experience. But Gajeel was close behind her, keeping their prey from getting too far away and them falling too far behind. The darkness around them didn't bother Gajeel too much; he could see just as well in the dark as he could in the day - one of the advantages of being a Dragon Slayer - and even if he couldn't, the scent of blood was enough to guide him.

It was a little reminiscent of the alley where he had gone down in after the Tartaros attack those few days ago, but something as petty as that memory was no deterrent for him to follow. The thrill of the hunt had overtaken in his veins, and there was no stopping him now until they got their prey, but he held his baser instincts in check as Wendy chased after Leeroy Jenkins. His baser instincts recognized Wendy as child and kin, something that his Dragon instincts said to protect and guide, so he barely registered her movements as something to be aware of; Wendy was just _there_, and Gajeel was her parent for the purpose of this hunt. But because of this, their sharp senses and abilities, he almost forgot about the bunny girl until, she reached out and _grabbed his arm_.

He nearly well lashed out and drilled her into the wall, not expecting both the human touch and scent clouding his senses suddenly, but managed to convert his oncoming enraged roar into a guttural growl. It made sense a few moments later why she had grabbed onto him; the bunny girl couldn't see in the dark like a Slayer could, nor could she follow scent and let the sound echoes tell her where the walls were - she had little choice but to grab onto his arm for guidance. Their prey squealed in terror at the sound that ripped from Gajeel's throat, and he heard Lucy make a little concerned yet unamused huffing noise under her breath. Gajeel wasn't used to working with humans - he'd never had a partner before Pantherlily, let alone a human one - and she was clogging his senses with a sweet smell that his adrenalin-infused blood was interpreting none too correctly.

The pitter-patter of Wendy's little feet rang out closely in front of them, her small form just barely a few steps in front of him - he had to scale down his longer steps as to not trample Sky Dragon Slayer. Gajeel had to drop back his steps more than he liked over the last minute, and it was a telltale sign that Wendy was beginning to flag; he could hear her breath coming faster and faster, her gait becoming smaller and her steps getting shaky. She was at the end of her stamina, so Gajeel decided it was time to end the hunt - it wasn't bad for her first try at it, even if Gajeel did like to draw them out as long as possible. There would be many more hunts after this one, with him guiding her, as he promised, and he would not stop until she could stand on her own feet without his eyes on her.

It was time to end the hunt, and he wanted Wendy to be the one to _take the kill_ - not actually killing, of course; he was a bastard, but not that much. As much as he wanted to end this himself, this was supposed to be a learning experience for Wendy, and as much as he loathed admitting, the bunny girl had become a distraction. She had a very firm grip on his good arm, meaning that he couldn't use his _Tetsuryūken_ ((Iron Dragon's sword))or_ Tetsuryūkon_ ((Iron Dragon's Club)) without dislodging her and possibly losing her in the network of dirty alleys. No doubt that the bunny girl would raise a fuss over that, even though he could find her easily by scent, and a bitching girl that he _couldn't_ shut up was beyond annoying.

It would be easy enough to aim a _Tetsuryū no Hōukō_ ((Iron Dragon's Roar)) over Wendy's head, but there was always the chance that his iron shards could catch the young girl as well. So it was up to Wendy now to take down their prey.

"Wendy, use a roar to bring him down," Gajeel shouted to her.

He heard a soft, timid sound and the falter of steps before she caught herself, clearly not expecting the Iron Dragon Slayer to let her take the kill personally. A well-placed roar would easily get the job done, even at her current power level, and it was the only mid-to-long range attack that she knew, and one of two offensive techniques she had. But she had to be careful using her roar in such a narrow alley; of course she was going to hit her target, but because of the bends and turns, there was a good chance that her roar would create backlash that would hit them.

And Gajeel thought she would do just that; take down their target with a well-placed roar, her cheeks puffed out as she gathered the energy in her mouth, but then she _blundered_. She actually _paused_ in her steps to release her roar, giving her prey time enough to make it just out of range of the direct hit from her _Tenryū no Hōukō_, instead having the whirlwind shatter against the wall instead of against flesh. Gajeel growled his displeasure, refusing to slow his stride, and pushed the stationary Wendy along in front of him. She made a startled noise, and the bunny girl cried out in disapproval at his actions, but he ignored her; Gajeel was not a nice man - _ask anyone -_ and there was no room to be as both a Dragon Slayer and a mage.

Little Wendy stumbled over her own feet, and with a helpful but rough shove from Gajeel, took the lead once again in their hunt. He had seen the Sky Dragon Slayer do that before; it was almost an instinct for the girl to pause in her steps to release her roar, and it was one of the first things that Grandine should have taught Wendy - _prey didn't stand still and wait for you._ A proper, full charged roar, like she used in their Edolas battle, had a wide range and powerful impact, and launching it while moving added more spin to the already rapid whirlwind that came from a roar. Wendy just needed to work up her self confidence and her magical power in battles; as far as Gajeel knew, her battle experience was limited down to two fights, no matter how large-scale they were, where his ranged somewhere in the hundreds.

"Take him down," Gajeel ordered roughly into the darkness.

The impatience and irritation was starting to show in his voice, and Wendy's instincts were likely telling her to be weary and obey the older Slayer presiding over her - judging from the startled little noise that she made, at least. Gajeel wasn't angry at her, maybe a little frustrated, but definitely not angry - what was _really_ getting under his skin was that their prey was _right there_, but Gajeel couldn't _touch him_. There wasn't a time he could remember where he wanted to finish a hunt so badly, to just level the blonde off his arm, catch the bastard with his _Tetsuryūkon _and _howl_ in joy at the kill. It was working him into a flurry, grinding his teeth together to stop the bone-shattering roar that was welling in his chest on _instinct_.

Something happened then that didn't spell anything very good - they rounded the bend in the dark alley, and the bright lights of the main street pierced the gloom. Nothing good could come of letting their prey escape into the crowd, where they could not roar or lash out to catch him - not without involving the random civilians still out. _Shit._ He was going to have to get Wendy to drop so he could roar the bastard himself before he reached the main road, because while he could not lose himself in the heavy crowd, it would slow down Gajeel enough to let their mark get ahead. And they were so close to the train station, no doubt by plan, and all that _bastard_ had to do was jump on a train and Gajeel would _lose_ him.

But something happened that Gajeel wasn't expecting; little Wendy, keeping her current pace, reared her head back and puffed her cheeks out. Gajeel couldn't keep his grin in check, nor the subtle malicious tint that tainted it - he could feel the current of the air, the hint of other-worldly Lost Magic power, and knew by instinct that Wendy had accumulated the correct amount of power. The backlash from the power she was building would barrel through the narrow alley and slam into them - it would stagger him for a moment, but it would send the bunny girl _flying_. With a dark thrill running through his veins, Gajeel reached out and grabbed the blonde, hauling her up without breaking stride and crushing her to his body.

Lucy made a very startled noise that was muffled in the shoulder of his tunic, his arm hooked around her waist to rest along her thigh - for all intensive purposes, she was now sitting on his forearm while clinging to his shoulders. He vaguely remembered the blue cat saying that Lucy was heavier than him, but she felt light in his opinion - the decent weight of a well-rounded woman. Lucy started to make screechy noises near his ear, and was damn well close to trying to hit him, when Wendy opened her mouth and let it loose.

"_Tenryū no Hōukō!"_

The vortex of spiraling air erupted from the girl's gaping maw, the bulk of force slamming straight into the back of their fleeing mark - right as he reached the mouth of the alley. He was sent careening out and straight into the very solid brick wall across the street, hitting it with what Gajeel found to be a very satisfying _thunk_ sound. The backlash of wind was already upon them, and Gajeel dug his heels into the concrete flooring, cracking it in the process, but he remained rooted to the ground.

Lucy, protests dying in her throat when she felt the lash of wind hitting them, buried her face in the crook of his neck on instinct, and her ragged breath against his skin was invoking certain bodily reactions - _fucking adrenalin_. But her fingers were twined in his tunic and her breath was moist against his skin and _the goddam adrenalin_ was making her smell _so fucking good_ that he didn't notice that his hand had slid back from grasping her thigh to squeeze her shapely rear. If the blonde did notice, she was too busy hiding herself from the blast of air that rushed past them to squeal and smack him, so Gajeel chalked it up to a mental win.

With the bunny girl still reeling from the impact of the backlash, and Wendy both out of breath and tired, that left Gajeel with the enjoyable task of incapacitating their prey. He didn't think that he had to worry about the bastard getting up any time soon, but they still had to turn in that bastard Jenks for their reward, and couldn't risk him getting away. And this mage clearly had a knack for escape. Well, not while Gajeel was there, that's for sure. Lucy was still huddled against him, and he turned his head to take a deep inhale of her heady scent before dropping her from his arms. She slid to the ground and landed on unsteady feet, blushing like a tomato and yet glaring her best at Gajeel, before wobbling her way over to Wendy and the two exceed that had joined her.

People were gathering around the man's prone form, alarmed at the sudden explosion for power that had been Wendy's roar, and the subsequently injured man. They sure as hell scattered quickly when Gajeel stalked out from the darkness, the thrill of the hunt running down his spine and almost, _almost_ _to the kill_. There was no way that bastard was going to be up anytime soon with the power of the roar Wendy had unleashed, and Gajeel found himself wishing that the _bastard_ would get up and make another run for it.

But that did not happen; their prey remained face-down on the road, Wendy panting under the lamplight, Lucy with her arm around the girl, glaring at Gajeel.

"Well, what now genius?" Lucy snarked.

And Gajeel liked her much better when she was cowering against him.


	8. Accidentally in Love

This chapter has: sleeping (of the boring kind); Gajeel's inappropriately placed hands (can't keep them in a safe spot); Dragon Slayer pillows (fun for the whole family!); Lucy's wandering fingers (on our hunk of Slayer man-meat); ponderings (upon the nature of Slayers); embarrassment (Lucy thinks she's a little too familiar with Gajeel)

You there. Yes, you - you reviewers. I love you. Thanks for all caring so much about my illness and wellbeing.

This chapter is for Oddball Punk. Yes, they shall both be dragged kicking and screaming into love, whether they like it or not. (*´ω｀*)

Yes, it has taken until _now_ to get a little romantic interaction between these two, but here it is. _A __**little**__ romantic entanglement_. Will possibly make it more romantic as I go along. Or not. Probably not. They don't do romantic very well.

Song by Counting Crows

XXXXXX

_Chapter 8 – Accidentally in Love_

Lucy felt _fabulous_. They had deposited Leeroy Jenkins at the Office of Magic Affairs, snatched up their something-hundred-thousand reward jewels, and retreated quickly to their hotel room for sweet, glorious, mind-blowing _sleep_. Both she and Wendy had gone into auto-pilot the moment they crossed the threshold to their shared hotel room, and Lucy was too exhausted to care that she would be 'sharing' with Gajeel right now. As it was, Lucy just barely managed to stay awake long enough to shower, then thrown on her overly large shirt that had once been Natsu's and crawled into the bed beside Wendy's.

The young Dragon Slayer was already out like a light, and Lucy contemplated staying awake to check on Gajeel, who was in the lobby 'talking' to the management (presumably), but she was just too damned tired. She'd had so much trouble sleeping as of late without regular assaults from Natsu in bed - he kicked and punched in his sleep - and the only way to get him to stop was to either knock his head in, or let him snuggle up to your back. Then, whenever they travelled, she'd find herself pressed against Gray's side, the ice mage's arm wrapped around her casually as he talked with Erza. Sometimes it would be Erza in her bed, the older woman forcibly maneuvering Lucy so she could cuddle her, and Lucy was always under threat of suffocation from the redhead's breasts.

It was a far cry from curling up by yourself in a hotel bed near the mountains, but Lucy hoped that the exhaustion of their little excursion was enough to tire her into a restful sleep. _And it had worked_.

She had no idea what time it was, and really _didn't care_, because she was so blissfully hazy right now that she was only vaguely aware that Gajeel had come back a _long time ago_ and crawled into his own bed. Well, he less crawled and more dropped - _loudly_ - but it was all relative. Lucy had only gotten up once some time after Gajeel's return to go to the bathroom, then dropped herself back into the bed and sighed happily. She had dozed on and off, but very deeply, so now she was hovering between asleep and awake very blissfully, refusing to move from her considerable comfort.

The bed was a little harder than she remembered, but she was so content right now that moving seemed overly arduous and therefore _wrong_. Instead she cracked a yawn and stretched out her limbs a little, uncurling her legs from where they were wracked up to her chest to wiggle her toes. She had completely forewent pants once again, and she couldn't bring herself to care - Gajeel had already seen her in her knickers before, what was once more if she decided to get up? But there was no point in getting up – their job was now complete, which meant both rent money and food money, and there was _nothing_ on her agenda other than _sleep_.

Wendy was somewhere nearby, making cute little snuffling sounds, and Lucy grinned sleepily and arched her back in a languid stretch. Someone grunted. A heavy weight settled over her hip.

It took longer than usual for Lucy's sleep-addled mind to put these things together, and when she cracked her eyes, all she could see was _flesh_. Blinking herself rapidly into a state of semi-awareness, Lucy craned her neck to check - _yes._ She was asleep on Gajeel, and his arm was thrown over her hip, hand resting along her bare thigh. Lucy was fairly sure that she would have had a heart attack if she wasn't so drowsy, and instead could only react by blinking like a stunned fish.

She had woken up in a similar state before, cuddled up to Gray, but there had been no awkwardness there except for when Natsu had insinuated himself against her back in her sleeping roll. By morning her legs were over Gray's waist, Natsu was cuddled up to her back, and Erza had an arm over them all - and there had been no awkwardness except for Natsu punching Gray in the head in way of greeting. She had gotten so used to it that it didn't even bother her anymore; it had just become of their normal interactions for Fairy Tail's strongest team.

But this, this was very different. Gajeel wasn't very close to her - figuratively, she would say, because physical evidence said otherwise - and this was her first time even working with him. _Way to go, Lucy, making yourself seem like a whore_. She wanted to either beat her head in against the wall, or if possible, beat in Gajeel's until he forgot this nasty mess she had gotten herself into. She couldn't stop the tremor running through her limbs from freezing so suddenly, and set about trying to delicately wiggle her way _off_ of the Dragon Slayer and just make it back to her own bed…

"Stop fidgeting."

Lucy felt her face flush at the deep yet quiet command, and the arm over her hip readjusted itself a little to hold her down tighter. She wondered if she was still asleep and this was a dream, or if the Iron Dragon Slayer had suddenly developed a sense of humour and decided to torment her. She really couldn't believe that Gajeel's hand was so damn close to dangerous territory, and yet the Slayer didn't even register it - where was Erza and her swords-of-fury when you needed them?

Her limbs had locked up again to freeze her in place, her cheeks a very unhealthy red, and she couldn't help but slowly lift and turn her head. Gajeel's face was perfectly lax, his eyes closed and his usually tense jaw completely relaxed, one arm curled behind his head while the other was _very well known_ on her hip and thigh. She wanted to screech and hit him, a good and normal reaction, but she just couldn't reach that necessary anger and anxiety - _she felt much too good and sleepy_ to, she realized with delayed horror. Lucy had _no_ intentions of staying sprawled out atop the Iron Dragon Slayer now that she knew, but Gajeel seemed perfectly content with keeping her there, arm and all.

Lucy shifted a little again, and his arm tightened that little bit more.

"Umm," she muttered.

It was enough for Gajeel to crack open an eye, their crimson depths surveying her lazily; he could probably see the blush staining her cheeks, her wide-eyed _something_ at being in the position she was, but at least he didn't grin. Well, she had his attention, at least, now _what the hell_ was going on.

"How…why…?" Lucy managed to splutter out.

_Smooth, Luce, real smooth._

Gajeel's lips twitched, and Lucy realized she was in prime range for elbowing that cocky _fucker_ if he did. Perhaps Gajeel realised this and that's why he didn't crack into a very toothy amused grin, or maybe he was just too damned drowsy.

"You decided to sprawl out over me," Gajeel told her.

She must have thought she was with Gray, because in all her recollection, the ice mage was the only one that Lucy had ever actively sought out to use as a travel pillow. Gray was oddly comfortable to rest against - or on, she guessed - and because of his magic, he was always cool for the heat of Fiore. Gray was a good friend, and didn't mind in the slightest; he always kept room on his travel roll for her to slink into once she couldn't sleep by herself.

_Why_ she had drowsily decided that Gajeel would be that substitute, Lucy had no idea - there weren't even cursory similarities between Gray and the Iron Dragon Slayer, and Gajeel was a hell of a lot larger and built than Gray was. Lucy briefly wondered about his injured ribs, and craned her neck a little - no, she was more on the opposite side of them. It was his injured arm thrown over her, considering that the arm behind his head was unscathed aside from the bruised knuckles she could see peeking out. He really should get those seen to - no, she wasn't going to play nicey-nice while in this particular position.

An odd snuffling sound issued from behind Lucy, and she had to twisted her head back enough to catch a glance of dark hair at Gajeel side. Apparently, Wendy had decided to insinuate herself in beside Gajeel; from the brief looks of it, her back pressed up along his side, Charle cuddled in her arms as always. Lucy found her sleep-addled brain ticking along at an odd pace with the revelation; they had turned Fairy Tail's feral Dragon Slayer into some kind of _body pillow_, and _he didn't seem all that put out by it_. If ever there was a time for her head to explode, it would be now.

"So, what? We just decided to use you as a pillow?" Lucy mumbled.

"Seems so," he replied.

His eyes were closed now, his breathing steady and…_ah._ She had turned her head to stop the oncoming crick in her neck and to wheedle her escape, but _that_ made her pause. It was something so simple and unexpected, and she never thought she would be in a position to _feel _it. His heartbeat. Everybody had one, of course, but she had never thought that she would ever be close enough to the Slayer to hear his - it was strong and steady and all the tension drained from her body. _Ah_, so _that_ was why she couldn't sleep anymore; she missed the sound of another's heartbeat.

It was pitiful that something like Team Natsu going off without her was enough to interrupt her sleep, but it wasn't as bad as crawling into a man's bed and sleeping with them - _on them_. She damn missed them so much that she was now subconsciously seeking out nearby people to crawl into bed with and just _sleep_. Gajeel seemed to be taking it rather well, though, which wasn't something she expected of his temperament or personality, which often leaned towards outright hostility and irritation. But Wendy was out like a light, calm and serene, and Charle wasn't raising a fuss, and the Iron Dragon Slayer was more relaxed than Lucy had seen him in a while.

_What the hell, when in Rome._ She maneuvered herself, Gajeel letting up his grip a little, so she could delicately roll onto her stomach and fold her arms across his chest, resting her chin on her forearms. Despite being a mass of hard muscle, Gajeel was surprisingly comfortable - Gray didn't have the bulk for her to be able to do something like this without suffocating him, but Gajeel's sheer strength and muscle mass didn't even let him miss a breath under her weight. Her changed position meant that his hand couldn't rest along her thigh, so now his injured arm was draped back across her waist and his hand resting on her hip. She could feel the rise and fall of his chest beneath her arms, and hear his heartbeat if she closed her eyes, and it was like some kind of sedative to her - she suddenly felt tired again, despite being in the embarrassing position of using Gajeel as a pillow.

"And you're just fine with being used as a pillow?" Lucy mumbled.

His heartbeat really was hypnotic. _Getting too tired…_

"As long as you stop elbowing me," he muttered, and that was the end of conversation.

If anyone had told her before that within 24 hours, she'd be invited on a mission with Gajeel, subsequently groped by him and then used him as a pillow, Lucy would have hit them for being idiots. But here she was, abnormally comfortable on his chest, his arm wrapped dangerously low around her hips, Wendy snoring beside them, and Lucy was _content_. What kind of screwed up situation were they in that she felt perfectly fine with sleeping atop the man, even if she still was a little nervous and blush-y about it? The Dragon Slayer wasn't exactly the cuddly type; in fact, out of the _five_ Dragon Slayers she had met and interacted with, he was easily the most feral of them all - and that included Cobra from the Oración Seis.

Lucy unfurled her arms and stretched them out, grazing her fingers against his collar bones, and she felt Gajeel's muscles twitch under her hands. There was a scar bisecting his left collar bone that was about the size of her finger, thin and pale with age - she wondered what had been strong enough to pierce through his iron scales to give him that. She touched a finger to it, feeling the raised skin absently as she rested her cheek _right_ over his heart, and she could have sworn that it sped up a little bit. Actually, looking better at his chest now (how couldn't she, she was lying on it), Lucy could see thin white-line scars crisscrossing along his torso all the way to the edge of her vision.

Natsu only had a scar on the back of his neck, hidden by his muffler at the most of times, and one on his shoulder blade from where he took a bad hit when fighting Jellal. Gray had the obvious one on his forehead, just above his eye, and another one on his left hand from where it looked like it had been run through - and Erza's skin was completely flawless, minus the calluses on her hands from swordplay. Gajeel had the biggest collection of scars she had ever seen on a person, let alone a mage - and they told her of every battle that he had scraped through. How many battles must he had gone through to get all those scars?

Her fingers brushed against his clavicle again - how close had that blow come to his heart? A few inches down, and it would have pierced through his heart, and they never would've met. Okay, so Lucy would have preferred to have met the Iron Dragon Slayer in a very different way, but it was part of _their_ history, what had sculpted them into the people they were now. Lucy drew her eyes up to his scar, where they caught a flash of red, and raised higher. Gajeel was looking at her, his sharp red eyes pinned on hers, his slit-pupils drifting from her fingers to her face, and Lucy sudden realised that, not only had she been lying here _checking him out_, but she had been _stroking_ him.

_Kill me now_.

"You have a lot of scars," Lucy mumbled in defense, blood rushing to her cheeks.

He blinked, and it was actually quite surprising that there was no anger or irritation in his eyes, just _knowing_. It was a completely different side to him that Lucy had never even glimpsed, let alone theorised about - the calm and collected side of the battle-lusting Slayer, the relaxed and tranquil state that they never saw that he was lulled into. She had seen him at his worst, beaten and dropped in an alley unconscious, she had seen him high on the carnage of battle against Natsu back in his Phantom Lord days, but this was the first time she had ever seen him _like a human_.

She let her eyes drift away, suddenly more embarrassed, and turned so her temple was against his heart, and her eyes were resolutely on the wall. _Stars_, she had just been staring at him, thinking, and he had been staring back at her - it was all so awkward and nerve-wracking that Lucy wanted to crawl back into her own bed and die. But Wendy groaned, stretched, and wedged herself further, if possible, into Gajeel's side, and she could feel the younger girl's hair brushing against her thigh. They were all huddled in together - she could see a tuft of Lily's dark fur sticking up from underneath Gajeel's crooked arm - and cuddled up to Gajeel like he was a hot water bottle.

And how didn't this bother Gajeel? Lucy wanted to ask, but she wasn't about to question her luck at finding him so calm and content. Instead, she closed her eyes, calmed her own rapidly beating heart, and let his own send her off to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

He wasn't quite sure _how_ it happened - how he had gotten so comfortable with the woman that she could get away with _this_. Gajeel had always been comfortable with Wendy. True, he'd never actually intended to take her under his wing, thinking that because of his style, that Natsu would be a more appropriate teacher for Wendy than he was - they both used elemental-type attacks as opposed to his physical ones. She had already started to imitate Natsu's attacks, but then the flame-brain had run off, leaving him with _two_ women. He wasn't quite sure if he was lucky or doomed for that.

Wendy was easy enough to adapt to. As timid and shy as she was, she was a Dragon Slayer, and as such, understood him on a base level. Everything in her instincts said that she should cow down to him - the older and the stronger Slayer - and his own instincts said to protect the young girl. Gajeel explained it to her, slowly and carefully before his run-in with Tartaros when they accepted the job, and she had listened with wide-eyed fascination. Grandine had never explained this to her, either out of negligence or the Sky Dragon never thought that Wendy would encounter another Dragon Slayer.

Lucy fell into a very different and much less black-and-white category. His instincts towards her were very muddled - as a Dragon Slayer, it said that she was a woman that was harmless to him; as a Fairy Tail mage, it said to protect her; as a man, it said that she was a _fine_ woman. As such, his senses drew somewhere between the three, mostly that she would not harm him or cause him harm, and thus should be protected while in his company. As the stronger ranking mage among them, even if he was _former_ S-Class, it was his responsibility to ensure both women's safety and wellbeing while on a job together. But that part in the back of his mind, the little part that was still a human man, said that she was _beautiful_ and _available_ and _right there, under his hands already_.

Needless to say, he ignored that.

She had proven in their earlier scuffle that she didn't need him all that much for protection - in fact, she had _tried_ _to_ _protect_ him, as much as he didn't expect or need it. Gajeel wasn't use to _anyone_ having his back before Panther Lily, let along _the bunny girl_; and _damn_ if she wasn't efficient with that lion spirit of hers. She had been a surprise there, darting into his peripheral vision, whip arcing light before them to _drill apart_ the enemies flanking him. His senses had been clogged with the scents and sounds of many people all rabbling around him, and the _bastard_ he was exchanging blows with had kept his attention, and not on the sneaky little _fuck _that was creeping up.

Lucy had _saved_ his ass then, because if he got a surprise hit in on his injured side, then Gajeel _knew_ he would have crumbled, however briefly, but that was all it took. But the bunny girl had his back - or side - and stayed there for the remainder of their fight, covering his slight handicap. Her whip was actually more useful than he thought, and it moved in ways that shouldn't be possible, winding and whirling as it arced before him and drove enemies back by force. The lion she had summoned was a powerful fighter, and a determined one at that, tapping into his rage every time he was separated or driven away from the bunny girl. The two made a good team, covering for each other's faults and strengths, even if Gajeel thought the lion coddled the blonde woman too much.

But all this didn't explain why having her sleeping atop of him was so damn agreeable to him. Maybe it was because she really was no threat to him, or it had been so _damned long_ since he had a willing body along his _without_ it ending in violence, but his arm was very comfortable tossed across her, and she seemed content to doze where she was. When she had first fallen atop of him none too gently, he had paused under her weight, wondering _what the hell_ was going on, but then she had let out a rumbling snore and made a little huffing noise. He had strongly considered just dumping her back in her own bed, but then Wendy had padded over, peeled back the covers and slunk in beside him. It had softened something in him to the point where he let it go, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep with the two women alongside him.

Panther Lily had sprawled himself in the crook of the arm hooked behind his head soon after, and he suddenly found himself surrounded by people. Gajeel _knew_ that he had all the social graces and knowledge of a teacup - he had been raised by a dragon, not a pussy-cat - and because of that, he was perfectly accustomed to being alone. The only time he ever shared a bed was for _the obvious_ _reasons_, but that was only as long as necessary to bring himself off, then he went back to his own, solitary existence. But _now_ he was surrounded by _people_, by heartbeats, that all depended on him and saw him as _nakama_.

And the heartbeats were spectacular. Lily's small heart was beating beside his ear, rapid in its timing because of how small he was. He could hear Charle's own little heart going, nestled so near Wendy's that the small pitter-patter of the Sky Dragon Slayer's almost merged with it. Lucy's heart was steady but strong, indicating how at peace she truly was as she muttered against his chest, and the warm breath tickled his ribs from where her blonde hair was splayed out. She was soft and warm atop of him, like a living, breathing blanket that blushed every now and then when she started exploring his scars, and Gajeel was feeling amazingly calm right now.

He closed his eyes contently, his fingers pressing against her bare hip, and drifted off.


	9. Supermassive Black Hole

Here ye shall find: Lucy with underwear (what is it with her and underwear, anyway?); Mirajane being crafty (you little devil, you); Gajeel _holding_ Lucy's underwear (^_^); Lucy spazzing (which seems to be a permanent state of being with her); Gajeel in _casual clothing_ (be still, my beating heart); awkwardness (Gajeel is such a magnificent _tsundere_);

Quick chapter update today, because I had spare time off between Uni assignments. And this chapter practically wrote itself. ^^ A filler between 'arcs', if you will.

Song by Muse

XXXXXX

_Chapter 9 – Supermassive Black Hole_

It was amazing how different Magnolia looked when you weren't going to get kicked out of your home _and_ you had spending money. It had been late afternoon by the time they all rolled out of bed and staggered about to wake up - Lily and Gajeel had already been out and snagged what appeared to be breakfast while Wendy and Lucy bathed and made themselves presentable. It was a little more difficult than she expected to get Wendy in the bath - maybe because Lucy proposed that they bathe together - but after a little coaxing, Wendy joined her in the tub... and managed to flood the bathroom floor in her excitement.

It was always fun to bathe with Levy; they tittered about boys and books, the latest antics of the guild, people who they admired (_Mirajane for Lucy and Fried for Levy_). Bathing with Erza was mostly listening her talk about different armors or the occasional childhood story about Natsu and Gray, but it was oddly calming and serene to listen to her talk so quietly and fondly. Mirajane giggled a lot, Bisca blushed a lot, Jubia grumbled on about Gray and how she would rather be bathing with him and Cana drank somehow without getting bathwater into her alcohol.

Wendy, true to a child of her age, loved playing with the bubbles in the bubblebath that Lucy used, made a decent mess while at it, but Lucy was glad that she was having such fun. It hadn't taken them long to get into clean clothes and get out of the bathroom, Gajeel claimed the bathroom, and Lucy helped Wendy pack up their things in between little bites of the food that the Iron Dragon Slayer had brought back. While the girls were monopolizing the bathroom, he had gone out, only to return with a sackful of fresh-baked breads. To which he had promptly denied that they were for the girls, insulted Lucy, and claimed the bathroom for himself - it was actually kind of sweet, the effort he went through to deny these things.

It was a little under an hour later when they left, pockets heavy with money and Lucy's in particular with sweets she had picked up. There was Shirotsume dango for her; a little obsession she had developed thanks to Natsu, cinnamon puffs for Erza and Gray, and boxed fire-candy for Natsu. She really shouldn't be enabling them and rewarding behaviour like _that_, but they were her friends through thick and thin, and she _loved them_. Gajeel apparently did not share that sentiment, eyeing her off oddly as she stuffed her suitcase with sweets that she could not possibly eat all by herself. But that had been hours ago, and now those little goodies were safely stashed in her fridge, knowing that would be one of the first places that Natsu would investigate if he got back when she wasn't there.

And Lucy was walking along the main canal road of Magnolia, rent paid, groceries bought and safely stashed away, and a very special bag hanging off her arm. Lucy had gone out on a rare binge and spoiled herself; she bought herself new underwear. With the bag of pricey panties on her arm and money in her wallet, Lucy happily trekked through the crowded streets and off towards the gaudy and welcoming guild building of Fairy Tail. For once her mind wasn't on Natsu and Lisanna, or Gray and Erza; it was firmly in the happy place of _rent paid, money in wallet_.

Gajeel had given Lucy her cut - more than she was expecting - and she was surprised to find that it was an even cut of the reward. A hundred thousand jewels for wheedling herself onto the job and both amusing and pissing off Gajeel. Lucy couldn't help the smile on her lips as she pushed her way though the doors of Fairy Tail, and, as usual, she was greeted by her _family_. Macao welcomed her back and Wakaba commented on 'a job well done', Romeo-kun gave her a passing hug as he pushed by, Jet and Droy waved as she passed, Levy pinning her with a brilliant smile. And Mirajane came around from the bar and hugged her, congratulating her on completing their given job.

How she had ever felt alone was beyond her. Her scope had been dramatically limited since she met _them_, always relying and depending and soon her whole world boiled down to Natsu, Erza and Gray. But everyone in Fairy Tail was still here, here for her. It had been a particularly hard realization for her to make, but sitting on that train for hours to get back home gave her ample time to think about it, even between the casual chit-chat that Wendy had struck up. Lucy still had her friends, her place in Fairy Tail's Strongest Team, but that didn't mean that she needed them to go on, to function and exist. She could make it without them, as she had proved with Gajeel and Wendy, even if it wasn't by herself.

Lucy didn't have to be by herself, but she didn't have to be with Natsu and Erza either. They were free to take Lisanna and Gray wherever they wanted without her, and she would still welcome them home just like Mirajane did, with no changes in the way she felt about them. It was actually quite startling that Gajeel had helped her reach this conclusion; not by speaking, because the Slayer still responded to her in grunts and glares, but just by thinking about her time with him, the few snippets of conversations they had had. Gajeel was always so strong to Lucy, always alone, striving for power by himself, no one to rely on and he _liked it_ like that.

Lucy could never do that, never attain that kind of strength. She relied on her nakama, on Fairy Tail, both in battle and in everyday life; her strength was built upon the love and help of those she held dear, and they would never let her down. Gajeel still seemed to be processing that people here were willing to help him, that he didn't have to walk on his self-imposed path of loneliness anymore, and he seemed hesitant to step off it. But he was already detouring - Gajeel was so strong by himself, but when he was together with Wendy, he was softer in his ways, though he masked it very well.

It wasn't hard for Lucy to see how much Gajeel cared for the young girl, even if he hid it under his veneer of iron-strong irritability and general grouchiness. He pushed her in ways that may seem unfair, even brutal for the other members of Fairy Tail, but Wendy responded well to it, and Lucy knew that there was no way in _hell_ that the older Slayer would actually hurt her. He cared for the little Slayer, whether he knew liked or accepted it; and from what Lucy had seen, being liked by the Iron Dragon Slayer was a very safe thing.

Mirajane had long since released Lucy and moved back around at her usual spot behind the bar, and Lucy sat on one of the many stools before her. Gajeel wasn't at his usual spot, which was a little surprising, but Lucy just assumed that he would be catching up on sleep at his place, or whatever the Dragon Slayer did in his free time. Huh. Now _there_ was a question; what did Gajeel do in his spare time? She couldn't really imagine him having some kind of hobby…._Gajeel with a hobby_. Lucy shuddered a little.

"So, how did it go?" Mirajane asked.

Lucy smiled at her, hefting her bag up onto the vacant counter space beside her

"Very good. We got the guy in record timing," Lucy explained.

"That's good," Mirajane agreed, "But not what I meant."

Lucy cocked her head to the side, slight frown on her face.

"What I meant was how you went with Gajeel," Mira told her.

Gajeel? Why would Mirajane be interested in how she went with the Iron Dragon Slayer over her clash with the guild-hunter? Wouldn't Leeroy Jenkins merit more worry then Gajeel – oh. _Oh_. She was worried that the Slayer might have _done_ something to Lucy; the last time they were alone together, he had tortured her and tried to kill her. Mirajane must still be worried about 'unresolved issues' between them - she and Gajeel had never really talked about what had happened back then, and Lucy was happy to let sleeping dogs lie.

It made her happy that Mirajane was worried for her, but Lucy didn't really need it. Yes, Gajeel was a jackass most of the time, a little too rough with Wendy and scarily nice when he was sleepy, but all in all, he was pretty damn companionable. He was alarmingly reliable - that had come as a bit of a surprise to Lucy - strong as an ox and completely fearless when it came to _anything_, whether it was a larger enemy or groups of them. The Dragon Slayer had worked to keep her and Wendy out of as much danger as he could in their battle - then again, Lucy did peg some of that to his _see-enemy-smash-them_ mentality. But Lucy had felt surprisingly safe in the older mage's company, as much as she did with Natsu and Gray.

So Lucy told Mirajane about their job, omitting some parts – she was way too embarrassed to tell her about her sleeping habits and Gajeel's wandering hands.

The white-haired Take-Over mage nodded in understanding, looking a little less tense than she had before; Lucy didn't even _realise_ that she had been worried. It really hammered home at how much the rest of the guild distrusted Gajeel, even though he had risked his own life by _willingly_ jumping into the anima to save _the entire city_. Lucy thought that would have redeemed him somewhat in their eyes, and even though she knew that Mirajane would never paint someone in those colours, it was clear that she thought it was a possibility. Gajeel had been (mostly) a gentleman, in his own warped way.

Mirajane accepted what Lucy told her about how he was actually a quasi-nice guy, nodding the whole time. But there was a disturbingly smug smile creeping onto Mirajane's face that was beginning to make Lucy _very_ nervous.

"What?" Lucy finally asked, the smile starting to get to her.

"Oh, it's nothing, really," Mirajane told her flippantly. "You're just defending him so vigorously, is all."

Lucy blushed and stuttered her excuses (_it's not like that at all, Mira-san! He's still a jackass!_) and Mirajane giggled. Knowing that anything else she said would dig her in further, Lucy gave up all protests and instead buried her face in her hands and wanted to cry. Mira was still giggling good-naturedly when Lucy's proximity senses went blazing, but it was only the older woman reaching across for her shopping bag.

"Oh!" Mira squealed, "Is Succubus Secrets having a sale?"

Succubus Secrets, despite the cheesy name, was the leading designer underwear brand in Magnolia, and usually came at a steep price. But they were one of the few brands that made _nice_ underwear for someone of Lucy's size - sometimes it sucked being so well-endowed. Mirajane could relate to that, being counted in those few, and Lucy decided that this was a safe change of conversation.

"Yeah! Check out what I bought!" Lucy gushed.

It wasn't often that she had enough money left over from a job to buy herself some truly cute underwear, but her little stint with the two Dragon Slayers had paid well. With rent money paid and groceries in her fridge, Lucy had splurged on a cute set of underwear and matching bra that she had liked. It was a lovely colour somewhere between red and dark pink - magenta, if she had to choose - with black lacing around the edges and the _perfect _fit. It was something she was thrilled with finding, and it had looked a treat in the changing booth.

Mirajane picked it up but didn't take it out the bag, knowing that Fairy Tail had an enormous amount of perverts residing in it, and it was understandable that they (the female populous) didn't want to broadcast what underwear they wore. Mirajane seemed to like the lacy set, a black bra strap hooked delicately around her finger as she admired it.

"Get it for anyone special?" she asked slyly.

Lucy blushed. "What? No! Nothing like that," she protested, and Mirajane grinned wickedly.

It wasn't a look that Lucy was accustomed to seeing, and she soon found out _why_ Mira was grinning so sadistically.

The second the bra strap slid off Mirajane's slender fingers, it was caught by larger, rougher ones. It took Lucy a few moments to comprehend what was going on, her eyes following the large, square-tipped fingers up to split knuckles (_sweet heavens, they looked familiar_), a muscular forearm (_please, God, no_), a powerful bicep (_don't do this to me_), an armored shoulder (_why, God, why?)_ a thick neck and straight to the face of Gajeel Redfox. Lucy just stared, mortification turning her face red and rendering her catatonic as the Dragon Slayer glanced inside the pink shopping bag, then turned his gaze to her.

"Really?" Gajeel intoned

Lucy felt paralyzed under his red gaze, and when the corner of his lips began to hike up in _that_ smirk, she finally felt her defense reflex kick in. In very fast sequence, Lucy managed to grab her lingerie bag and then punch Gajeel right in the ribs, winding the larger mage with a precise strike to his bruised ribs. He might have wheezed something after her attack, but Lucy was screeching to intelligible heights, and high-tailed it out of there as quickly as she could.

Face beet-red and bag crushed to her chest, Lucy ran down the canal road, desperately willing all this to be a cruel dream. If not, than Gajeel really _had_ been fingering her underwear - _oh gods, that sounded so wrong!_ Handling! He had been handling her brazier with his fingers and then his eyes were on her…

Lucy squealed and buried her face into her hands.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took a very long shower and stashing that innocent underwear bag away in the bottom of her drawers to calm Lucy down, but it was the hot shower had done the trick. Gajeel had seen her in her underwear on at least two separate occasions, and groped her_ (twice, if you count the hand on her hip and thigh while they slept),_ so she had no idea why the concept of him _holding_ her bra was so embarrassing. Natsu had raided her panty drawer before and thought they were hats, Gray had asked to _borrow_ her underwear before, and Erza had rifled through it to check Lucy's tastes. It was something completely different to have Gajeel Redfox doing it, though. Twice now he had seen her panties, but now that she thought about it, they were under very different circumstances.; the first he was injured and it never occurred to her that she was without pants, the second they were both nearly comatose from exhaustion.

But they had been on Lucy's terms, however belated, while _that_ had not been. No wonder Mirajane looked so wicked - she must have seen the Iron Dragon Slayer coming. Lucy made a mental note to check her surroundings whenever she had something personal, or Mirajane started grinning like that - and to avoid the Take Over mage for a little while. It had been _mortifying_ that Mirajane had _seen_ that interaction, let alone how calm Gajeel looked while _holding her underwear_.

Lucy groaned again, shaking her head as she toweled off her hair, ready to curl up with another book for the rest of the night. It was dark outside, the cool night air filtering in through her partially-opened bedroom window, kept open out of habit. It had forced Lucy into her thermal pajamas and a thick pair of socks, her fluffy robe thrown over the wooden chair as she passed, still drying her hair.

Gajeel had been taking up a disturbingly large part of her thought process the last few days, and Lucy wasn't quite sure where it came from, or why. Maybe it was all the free time she had, not worrying about what Natsu was going to destroy next and how to get out of it. Perhaps, it was because she had just recently been on a job with the Iron Dragon Slayer; she had never really thought about him beforehand for extended periods _before_ their job. Either way, Gajeel seemed to have taken over a little square of her brain, and Lucy wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about that.

She was sure that the Slayer certainly wasn't thinking about her; what _did_ he think about, anyway? With all that time he spent alone, purposely isolated from the world, Lucy didn't know how he wasn't mad by now - _no, she did know_. He joined Fairy Tail. It may seem odd - joining a guild of madmen to stop one's descent into the very thing - but being with people who cared about you, even if it was just to sit near them, was the reason that Gajeel was probably still functioning. Mostly functioning - she would never insult him by saying that he was completely sane, _because he wasn't_. Most of Fairy Tail wasn't, and maybe that was what had attracted him to the guild in the first place.

And this subsequently brought her thought-pattern right back round to Shirotsume; their battle against Leeroy Jenkins and the dark guild. Lucy had never actually seen Gajeel fight up-close until then; she had been on the end of his physicality before, yes, but she had never seen him use it against an enemy before. When he had fought against Natsu back when he was still a Phantom S-Class, she hadn't been privy to a lot of the fight, and she hadn't seen a thing back in Edolas. Still, even after being in only one fight with the Iron Dragon Slayer, Lucy could succinctly say that he was someone that she didn't want to mess with.

He was pure physicality and strength, ripping through opponents like his iron through paper, muscles rippling and contracting under the force of his own blows. More than once she had admired his physique - they _really_ didn't make mages with _bodies_ like his - and he was a force to be reckoned with when in battle. It hadn't been all that distracting at the time, being more concerned with both keeping her own ass out of the line of fire as well as Wendy's, but afterwards, she had kind of, well, ogled him. Loki had been pissed to no extend, but Lucy wasn't even aware she was doing it, so how was she to blame?

And here she was, thinking about Gajeel again. Lucy made a loud, frustrated noise and tugged angrily on her mostly-dry hair. This was a dangerous path she was treading right now, and if she didn't know any better, she would think that she _may_ be attracted to _Gajeel Redfox_. There was only one reaction to that.

She snorted.

And she nearly jumped out of her skin when a very firm knocking sound erupted from her front door. Lucy stared dumbly in the direction of her door, all previous thoughts slammed away in a corner of her mind. Who could it be at this time of night? Natsu, Gray and Erza were out of town - they never used the door anyway, let alone knocked - and Lucy was fairly sure that the rest of Fairy Tail had no idea where she lived. A thought flashed through her mind: _could it be Tartaros?_ Clearly, the dark guild had it out for Gajeel, and she had essentially aided him in escaping, putting a severe hanker in their plans to main the Dragon Slayer. Then again, _would Tartaros knock?_ It could be a ploy to get her to lower her guard. It could be the land lady telling her to keep it down again (although doubtful, because Gray and Natsu weren't here). Either way, there was only one way to solve this.

Grabbing her keys, and with her fingers firmly set on Taurus's key, Lucy edged over to her front door, where another firm knock issued from. Damning the fact that she had _no peep hole_, Lucy steeled herself, and cracked the door open an inch. And there, staring down at her, was a very sharp red gaze that looked like it was from a horror movie, and she slammed the door shut rapidly as her chest hammered. Silence reigned throughout her apartment, and after a few steadying breath, she realized she _knew that gaze_.

Cheeks flushing in embarrassment, not for the first time that day, Lucy wrenched open her front door. And standing there on her threshold was Gajeel Redfox, the very man who had been whirling around in her thought process, looking at her like _she was crazy_. Many things slid through Lucy's mind at this point: why was he here? How did he know where she lived again? Did he really think that she was nuts? But the most prevalent thing was that _Gajeel was wearing clothes_.

Of course, the Iron Dragon Slayer _always_ wore clothing, consisting of his battered iron-collared tunic and white pants, but this time he was wearing _normal_ clothing. His ragged iron-studded tunic had been traded in for a simple black t-shirt that stretched _just right_ across his abdominals and biceps; his baggy white pants were replaced with dark cargo pants, but he still had his iron boots. Lucy gaped at him, eyes raking from toe to head; she had been expecting something else, just not _him_.

He looked like a man. Well, Gajeel _always _looked like a man, of course, but now he looked like a _human man_.

Gajeel hiked a studded eyebrow, looking at her almost expectantly until… _oh_. Lucy quickly stepped aside from blocking the door, and the Dragon Slayer entered. She had _slammed_ the door in his face not a moment ago, and no doubt that he wasn't eager for a repeat performance. Closing the door a lot more calmly this time, Lucy sucked in a shaky breath for some semblance of normalcy, and turned to the Iron Dragon Slayer. Gajeel wasn't far away, his eyes fixed on Lucy as she squirmed under his gaze, and Lucy _really_ wished that she knew how to casually interact with the Slayer, because this was a little ridiculous.

"What was with the spazz-out?" Gajeel groused

Lucy pursed her lips and tried to level a glare at him.

"It's complicated," Lucy explained.

"You're spastic," Gajeel snorted.

Lucy punched him in the shoulder as she passed; it seemed to be turning into a regular interaction between them, and it made her feel better. Besides, it wasn't like her weak little punch could do much against that muscle bulk. Gajeel followed her into her bedroom, which really doubled as the living room, and seated himself at her mismatching table and chairs. Lucy took a moment to reflect on the oddity of Gajeel being in her bedroom in casual clothing, not to mention that he was better behaved than Natsu or Erza were, before she sat down opposite him.

"What's with you?" Gajeel demanded. "You looked like I was The Slasher at the door."

_Did... did Gajeel just make a pop-culture reference?_ And from a horror movie, to boot. That was more than enough to knock Lucy for six, and she reeled under the implications of _Gajeel using pop-culture references_ while the Dragon Slayer himself just stared at her. It was frightfully reminiscent of when Lucy had first approached him, in a drunken slur, and he had regarded her with irritation and _concern_.

"I just… I wasn't expecting company," Lucy muttered lamely.

Gajeel blinked, and Lucy squirmed under the weight of his crimson gaze. The Iron Dragon Slayer, much like Lucy herself, had a built-in bullshit meter, because he sure as hell wasn't buying her excuse. The look on his face said as much, if not more; _nice try, bunny girl._

Lucy pouted and avoided his gaze.

Gajeel snorted.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Lucy asked. "And where's Pantherlily?"

"At home," Gajeel replied, referring to his exceed partner.

Lucy took a moment to ponder this; now that she thought about it, where the _hell_ did he live? She knew where Erza and Natsu lived, and Gray resided at the boy's dorms, but where did the Slayer call home? Lucy pictured him in a shack like Natsu's, though she supposed that he would need a bed because there was no way that a hammock like Natsu's could support his weight. Snorting at the idea (Natsu had a little herb garden that he kept surprisingly well weeded), Lucy let it run rampart for a little while.

"Spazz," Gajeel accused, roughly poking her forehead with a finger.

Lucy huffed and batted his hand away; if anyone had told her that she would be _casual_ with Iron Gajeel before now, she would have slapped them. As it was now, it was almost natural to assault Gajeel in a playful fashion, and the Slayer certainly seemed to find amusement in it.

"So, _what_ are you doing here? Lucy asked again.

Gajeel made a face - _casual clothes, pop-culture references AND faces_ - and kind of jerked his head to the side, like he was put out by having to answer. _She_ was the one who was supposed to be put out here; it was her apartment! The Iron Dragon Slayer went through a series of little movements and ticks, and if Lucy didn't know better, she would almost say that he was being a little sheepish. Gajeel Redfox. Sheepish. _Now that was a laugh!_

The Dragon Slayer in question made a growly noise that had Lucy quirking an eyebrow, reaching into the pocket of his cargo pants and pulling out a folded piece of paper. He held it vaguely in her direction, and with a little trepidation, Lucy took it, unfolded it gently, and read the contents.

It was a job request. _An item had been stolen, need back urgently, reward 500,000 jewels, Fairy Tail mages encouraged._

It actually _said_ Fairy Tail mages encouraged. What the hell could that mean? Was it a nudge or a trap from Tartaros? Offering five hundred thousand jewels for a stolen item was fishy enough, let alone the inclusion of their guild name into the request itself.

"The Master said that it was issued to Fairy Tail _only_ so far," Gajeel said.

Made sense if it really was a Tartaros plant, but it was still a little too obvious. Didn't mean that it wouldn't work, though, because the guild was pretty crazy enough to see it as a challenge and go after it. Good thing Gajeel had swiped it then.

"I see," Lucy mumbled.

But why would Gajeel come to her - oh_._ _Oh_. Lucy _knew_ about his little foray into the world of dark guilds, thus making her the perfect _back-up_. Wendy didn't know - Gajeel had made it a point to keep her out of it even to the extent of working with injuries - and that left Lucy, well within the realm of knowing. Lucy didn't want to particularly tangle with such a powerful dark guild, but then again, she would feel a nagging worry if Gajeel left with only Pantherlily for back-up. She may not be much, but she _could_ help.

"Train station in the morning?" Lucy asked, looking up at him.

"Seven O'clock," Gajeel replied roughly, taking the request back and shoving it in his pocket.

She had only been home for a few hours, just finished unpacking and settled in. Lucy sighed. Looks like it was time to pack again.


	10. Adorable

And within shall be contained: angry!Gajeel (someone's not getting their way ~); Lucy baiting Gajeel (good ol' fun); take-charge!Lucy (or at least she tries); failed stakeouts (Gajeel is impatient); more romantic entanglement (of the less romantic kind; AKA Gajeel is an ass); Gajeel shutting up Lucy (there are better things to do with her mouth);

Song by Artist vs. Poet. So, _so_ Lucy and Gajeel, that song.

XXXXXX

_Chapter 10 – Adorable_

Lucy didn't think that she had ever seen Gajeel so angry before, but she thought this was _hilarious._ That made her sound like a really horrible person, but out of all the things they had been expecting, dreading and preparing for, _this _was certainly _not_ something they were ready for.

They had boarded the early train to Clover, 7 o'clock in the morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed and Lucy was wound up to tight that the four hour train trip crawled by excruciatingly slow. Gajeel had looked as laid back as ever, but Lucy could see the subtle tick in his jaw and eyebrow, and the not so subtle tick when he heard a loud noise. On a smaller, brighter not, his arm didn't need bandages now, even if some of the cuts on his arm weren't quite healed and scabbed over yet. But it looked a hell of a lot better than it had when Lucy had fixed it up, and that was all that really mattered, even if his arm was going to gain a few more scars.

They had brought no luggage, because, really, Clover wasn't all that far away, and who brought baggage on something as clearly _sketchy_ as this job?

The meeting place where they were supposed to meet their client was in the industrial part of the city, where the busy factories and businesses ran their wares. But it was oddly quiet for late morning in Clover, and if Lucy was on edge, then Gajeel was over it. The Iron Dragon Slayer looked ready to snap someone's neck with his bare hands, Pantherlily was poised to activate his Battle Shill at any moment, and Lucy had a very tight grip on her keyring. Loki had already had his foray into the real world for the time, and she wasn't quite sure she'd like him and Gajeel to interact on an extended basis, so she had Taurus at the ready. Expecting one of the bigger fights of her life, Lucy all but glued herself in between Lily and Gajeel, nervous as hell but ready nonetheless.

And then the client had shown up. No Tartaros mages showed up to try and kill Gajeel, no dark guild arrived to pounce upon them; instead, a very enthusiastic Fairy Tail fan had called them out.

"Coooool!"

Gajeel twitched. Lucy hid her snicker.

Out of all the possible requestee's, this one had come from none other than the very eccentric Sorcerer Magazine reporter Jason, personal Fairy Tail fan and professional at _pissing off Gajeel_. It wasn't really Jason's fault at all, really; Gajeel had been geared up for a fight, and this was quite possibly the most anti-climatic ending to a very stressful morning. Lucy herself was personally quite happy with the way it had turned out, even if Gajeel _was_ about to commit bloody murder and that Pantherlily was trying to look as little as possible to stay out of the limelight. It was a good idea _in theory_, but Lily clearly didn't take into account that then _all_ attention was diverted to Gajeel.

And he was not amused. It was a little disappointing that Jason had only paid her cursory attention - Lucy was used to be foreshadowed by Erza and Natsu - but she was the only girl now, so it was a little disconcerting. On the plus side, Gajeel was very irritated and there was _nothing that he could do about it_. Well, he could always walk away from the job, but Gajeel's pride would not allow him to, not to mention his mile-wide stubborn streak. But either way, Lucy was going to have to divert Jason soon before Gajeel snapped, and then _snapped_ his neck, because having a _dead client_ did not work if you wanted to get paid.

"Um, Jason-san?" Lucy asked, prompting both men to stare at her, "About the job…?"

Gajeel's jaw twitched, and she had no idea what that was about, but Jason did this odd little scuttle over to her.

"Ah! Lucy Heartfilia-chan! Cooool!" Jason _squealed_.

It was quite alarming that a full-grown man could make a noise that high, but nevertheless Lucy preened under the attention. The blonde man had grasped her hands and was now rhapsodising all her achievements, which were either grandly embellished, or backlash from Natsu's destructive capabilities. Even if they were horribly fallacious, Lucy enjoyed the subtle ego-stroke that came with being the centre of the paparazzi attention - even if it _was_ only one reporter.

But what was more amusing than Jason was Gajeel, because the Iron Dragon Slayer was now looking more sour than he had before, and it was just a bonus that she managed to wipe the usually-smug grin off his smarmy face. Lucy wasn't quite sure what had the Slayer quite so pissed off - the attention was off of him now, wasn't it? - but Lucy thought that he was _closer_ to blowing his top now than before. He really did get angry over completely random things, and Lucy didn't want to agitate the already volatile Dragon Slayer further.

So, putting aside her new favourite kick of Gajeel-baiting, _where he wasn't amused by it_, Lucy let Jason round off his gushing soliloquy before interrupting him at what she thought was a decent enough point. Of course, she did draw it out a little just to see the little thunderclouds form over Gajeel's head.

"What was this about a missing item, Jason-san?" Lucy asked politely.

That seemed to snap Jason out of his obsessive gab-fest and into a slightly more sober mood - only slightly, though.

"Someone stole my ultra-special one-of-a-kind camera!" he explained. "I have no idea who did it, and I want it back!"

Ah, so _that_ explained why there were no bright flashes in their faces when they had first met Jason in the Industrial district - Lucy had known that something was wrong, but just couldn't put her finger on it. It also explained why Gajeel hadn't levelled the blonde man out of the window yet head-first. Either way, it was probably a good thing that Jason was without his trademark camera; while Lucy wouldn't mind the publicity (publicity = jewels), Gajeel was wanted by a third of the Balam Alliance's dark guilds. It was probably best that the Iron Dragon Slayer lay low for a while, even if he was the _definition_ of obvious.

Still, it certainly was a hell of a reward to issue for a missing camera, of all things, even if it was _ultra-special one-of-a-kind_. Even with a reward that high, it was probably best for Gajeel if he turned Jason down - but that infallible Dragon Slayer pride and stubbornness of his kept him from doing so. Lucy wouldn't mind the cash to restart her rainy day fund, which only had a few hundred jewels to it right now, and Gajeel could - _huh_. What the _hell_ did Gajeel spend all his money on anyway? The Dragon Slayer only went after the high paying requests, or the jobs that would _piss people off_ - so where did all the money go?

Lucy eyed the Dragon Slayer discreetly while Jason prattled on about his one-of-a-kind special camera. He sure as hell didn't spend all those reward jewels on clothing, what with his ratty dark tunic and well-repaired pants. She couldn't really see him spending it on house-hold items or lavish accessories; from what Lucy had seen over the months, he was a very 'basics' kind of man. Lucy had only ever seen him in two different sets of clothes, and never with anything new - Erza spent all her money on cake and armour, Gray on his own rent, and Natsu on finding his dragon-daddy. She couldn't really see Gajeel going out of his way to find his own dragon father like Natsu did; Gajeel _never_ said anything about Metalicana outside of that initial conversation with Natsu when he was still with Phantom Lord.

"How do you know it was stolen?" Gajeel asked roughly.

Both Lucy and Jason blinked at the Iron Dragon Slayer, who was completely non-fussed about the attention _now_ - Lucy rarely saw anything rattle the older mage. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good question. Jason could have just misplaced it and jumped to conclusions - it happened more often than you could guess with these kinds of jobs. She and Natsu had once spent a full day 'hunting' a stolen necklace, only to find it had fallen under the client's bed. _That_ had been fun.

"I locked it in my office while I was interviewing a possible new employee, and when I came back, WHAM! The door was off its hinges and my camera was gone!" Jason cried.

Okay, so definitely stolen. They had likely cleared up the office by now, so that made the odds of Gajeel catching a scent in there damn near zero, which meant that they would have to be a little more creative here. Gajeel would probably just want to beat everybody up until someone coughed up information; again, it was up to Lucy to formulate their cunning camera-finding plan. _Hmm, where to start?_

It could be an employee, sick of the blonde's crazy antics (Lucy was a little, just because he was hard to handle). Maybe a rival magazine had taken it to cripple Sorcerer resources? Maybe his last photography session hadn't gone well and the models wanted retribution against Jason; _Natsu claimed that Jason had ruined him, even if everything he printed about the Fire Dragon Slayer was completely true_.

Well then, first thing's first.

"Jason-san, what were to photographing before your interview?" Lucy asked

Jason looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "A corrupted mage guild on the other side of town."

_Well, shit._

"They've been taking assassination requests," he added

_Double shit!_

Gajeel seemed to be thinking something similar, if his sardonic expression was anything to go by, and shot a very sarcastic look to Lucy. Lily was shaking a little in her arms in an effort to keep his invisible veneer up, but it was clear that the little exceed wanted to weigh his two cents in. Anything to deter Gajeel from accepting this job, but pride go-eth before the fall, and he had a hell of a lot of pride to fall through. Maybe that was something that he had inherited from Metalicana, because she had never met such a proud and stubborn person before; even Natsu was easier to handle than the Iron Dragon Slayer, and Natsu was unpredictable. Gajeel was predictable, but there was _nothing_ you could do to stop him either way.

"Tell us where this guild is," Gajeel 'politely requested'.

Jason looked thrilled at the sound of force in Gajeel's voice, and not for the first time, Lucy wondered if the man had a few screws loose. Actually, he'd probably be perfect to join Fairy Tail, if only he had magical powers.

"It's down on the south side, near the edge of town. I'll show you!" Jason announced.

_Oh. Dear. God. No_. The last thing that she needed, _that anyone needed_, was Jason there to 'help' their job progress and infiltrate the dark guild. What the hell was it with Gajeel and attracting dark guild activity anyway? Lucy thought that she could throw a stone in the Dragon Slayer's presence and hit a dark guild lurking nearby. Even Natsu and Erza didn't have this kind of luck, and their luck was pretty crummy.

Dark guilds, Gajeel and a tag-along Jason - Lucy wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry at the outcome. Instead, she buried her face into the top of Pantherlily's fur, and begged to any and all gods out there that this went as smoothly as it could.

_If only_.

XXXXXXX

Lucy grabbed onto the back of Gajeel's collar and tugged with all her might. The Iron Dragon Slayer made a noise that came out slightly choked and ended very angrily. He rounded on Lucy, and for a terrifying yet amusing moment, she thought that he might actually hit her; all she got was a very irritated and angry glare instead. Lucy glared back at the older mage, and placed a rather indelicate stomp to his instep, making the Dragon Slayer hiss angrily and glower ever darker than before.

It wasn't something she had particularly wanted to do - Lucy thought she had wrenched her arm on his bulk - but the _moron_ was about to kick in the door. It wasn't just any door he was rearing to kick in - it was the door to the only-recently-turned-dark mages guild on the edge of Clover Town's southern district. The Dragon Slayer just seemed to have a compulsion to kick anything in his way, especially anything remotely door-shaped, and that was beginning to irritate Lucy. A stealthy approach to the mages who _didn't know they were coming_ would be the more intelligent thing, as she had told Gajeel, but his response had been a rather derisive snort.

_The jackass_.

Lucy had never wanted to hit someone so badly, and stomping on his instep did make her feel a little better, even if it did piss off the already-hostile slayer. A little under a week ago, and that would have concerned Lucy almost as much as the dark guild they were going to fight _over a camera_, but now she _knew_ that he wouldn't intentionally hurt her, no matter how much he projected otherwise. There was no way that Lucy would ever really call Gajeel harmless, but that's exactly what he was to her at the moment; as long as she was loyal to Fairy Tail and didn't betray him (not that she ever would on either counts), she had nothing to worry about. Actually, she was expecting to get an earful on the train home after this, if he didn't decide to just sit on her and suffocate her right out.

He really needed to stop concocting defunct plans of action without consulting her and then launching them - and expecting her to play along. It was about time that he _listened_ to her _very good_ plans, and without snorting or grunting or just plain-out ignoring her.

_Egotistical jack-hole._

"You need to listen to me, Gajeel," Lucy hissed.

They were outside the guild building now, the Dragon Slayer not two steps from kicking the door in before Lucy had intervened. She was so damn close to just summoning Loki and telling him that Gajeel had touched her inappropriately - let's see how the angry Slayer goes up against an enraged Leo. But that was a threat best saved for another day.

"We have Jason-san to worry about as well," she reminded him.

Jason was a few steps behind them in the company and guard of Pantherlily, who had come out of his silent reverie to pitch in the battle. Jason had been so thrilled and excited to see another exceed that he was currently questioning the black cat, and Lily was looking a little disconcerted over it.

There was a definite plus to the battle that Gajeel's arm had healed up better and he had more mobility from his not-really-bruised-anymore ribs. But, Jason was _insisting_ to tag along, spare camera in hand, saying that he wanted to capture their victory or some-such, but either way, he was a liability. Even with Lily playing the rear guard, Jason had no attacking or defensive capabilities, which put him firmly in the camp of _useless_. Gajeel did not seem to realise this, because he still was acting like a man-shaped battering ram, even after the vigorous explanations (read: bitch-out) that Lucy had given him.

"You need to start listening to my input," Lucy ranted. "Don't just ignore me like _mmph!_"

It took a few heart-beats for her brain to catch on _why_ she couldn't speak anymore - it was because Gajeel's mouth was very firmly over hers. His eyes were locked onto hers and she could smell him and _his tongue was pressing against her teeth_ and her knees were threatening to give out and _she couldn't breathe!_ Gajeel drew back and Lucy's knees decided to give up on her, so she plummeted to the ground, and would have hit if Gajeel hadn't of grabbed her arm to keep her upright. Lucy could only blink blankly at the almost flummoxed expression on Gajeel's face, and as his red eyes widened with _realisation_, Lucy's embarrassed reflex kicked in.

With a well-placed slug to his jaw, Gajeel instinctively let go of her arm, and Lucy was deposited very roughly on the ground. She made an embarrassing squeaky noise when her rump bit the concrete, but her mortification was all overruled by one particular thing. Gajeel Redfox had kissed her.

And he was looking down at her, studded eyebrow raised and a fairly perplexed look on his face, and Lucy hoped that the ground would swallow her up. She probably looked like the proper, victimised young lady at the hands of the brutish male from any other perspective, but _other_ perspectives didn't matter. Gajeel had surprise on his face, but _knowing_ in his eyes, and Lucy now knew that Gajeel knew, especially after her reaction to something as _little_ as a kiss - Lucy was a virgin.

Between her mortification and shell-shocked horror, she wondered what the odds of her _killing_ the Iron Dragon Slayer were. Good at the moment.

"Lucy-chan?" a voice sounded behind her.

_Oh dear stars above_. Jason had rounded into her eyesight, standing just off of Gajeel, and the Iron Dragon Slayer was eyeing the blonde man like he was a dark mage. Why Gajeel would see the reporter as a threat was beyond Lucy, but it was the last thing on her mind. What was first and foremost was that Jason, Sorcerer Weekly reporter, had just seen Gajeel kissing her. She couldn't even tell where her emotions were right now, all she could do was stare ahead blankly as Jason lowered himself down to her level with worry in his pale blue eyes.

What would she do, if the world found out that Gajeel Redfox had kissed her when they were trying to bust down a dark guild? It wasn't like that was Lucy's first kiss - she had pecked plenty of people before, most of them Fairy Tail nakama - but this was the first time that anyone's tongue had been anywhere near her own mouth. Lucy wasn't an idiot; while she may not had _kissed_ anyone like that, she was well aware of what it meant, and how to actually do it - years of novel writing and reading had taught her more than she needed to know about romance and smut. But what had probably back-fired her brain was the fact that it had been Gajeel who had kissed her, rather abruptly and without warning or reason, and her mind decided that it would be a good time to shut down.

"Lucy-chan, you okay?" Jason asked. "We heard this _thump_ and then you were like this."

_Oh thank you, whatever deity was up there_. Jason had been too distracted with Pantherlily to have seen that display, and Lily himself was standing by Gajeel, pinning his Slayer counterpart with a very questioning gaze. Well, she'd rather Lily of witnessed that than a reporter like Jason, and as it was, maybe she _didn't_ have to kill the Iron Dragon Slayer. Yet.

Lucy let Jason help her up, and even though her cheeks were probably a very vibrant red colour, she brushed it all off and took her place near the door to the guild, ready for the accompanying fight. She had objected to Gajeel's brutish tactics before, but now anything to take her mind, and subsequently Gajeel's, off what had happened was the only thing she wanted.

And in true Fairy Tail style, what was better to take one's mind off of things than an out-of-scale vastly-outnumbered battle?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Well, I didn't say their 'romance' would be romantic in nature, did I? (Please ignore the oxymoron). Don't worry, they kinda get dragged into it kicking and screaming in a few chapters from now ~

Ave ~


	11. Ready To Go

Within: brawling (what else is new?); Lucy master plans (which work out better than Gajeel's any day); property destruction (Fairy Tail normality); Unison Raid (caught on camera); grabby hands (he can't keep them to himself).

Okay, so people wanted more, so I put my butt into gear to get you this. Seriously. I'm in hospital 2 times a week on top of work, so this is a miracle chapter. Or not.

I might not be able to update for a little while, depending on what the surgeon tells me on Monday… so, err, yeah.

Edited on the fly, waiting for my ride to the hospital. So, mistakes – please point them out.

Song by David Whitaker (Guilty Crown OST)

XXXXXX

_Chapter 11 – Ready To Go_

Months, although it had felt like years by now, of partnering up with Natsu, and subsequently Erza and Gray, had given Lucy phenomenal ducking skills. With the calibre of enemies that her team managed to attract, Lucy had developed an almost uncanny ability to dodge enemy attacks, not even mentioning friendly-fire. When Erza got angry, sometimes she threw things, at least of half of Gray's Ice Make magic were projectile-based, and Natsu was just as likely to hit his nakama (_accidentally_) as he was an enemy. As such, Lucy had the upper hand in this particular battle.

And this particular talent came in handy, while Taurus was ploughing through people, when one particularly annoying mage decided to sit upon the building's wooden roof beams and hurl handfuls of magic at them. She wasn't quite sure _what_ kind of magic he used, only that it seemed to corrode whatever it touched - and she wasn't keen to find out what happened when it touched human skin. From what Lucy managed to deduce through the battle-cries and screams (at Gajeel), this acid-throwing mage was their rag-tag leader, and there, hanging around his neck, was a _certain ultra-special one-of-a-kind camera_.

The mage hadn't managed to stash it away when Gajeel came bursting through the doors and flattened two mages into the ground just by running into them. There was no use hiding it now, since they had caught sight of it, and the opposing mage seemed more than happy to keep it looped around his neck while pelting the with acid. What really sucked the most was that _Acid McGee_ up there seemed to be dedicating his invaluable evil-dark-guild time to aiming mostly at _Lucy_, and not the more easily targetable Iron Dragon Slayer. It was in moments like these that Lucy missed Erza and her armour-induced ability to fly. How that bastard had gotten up there in the first place was baffling, because there must be a two story drop to the floor with no discernable way up apart from flying.

But that was something to be thought about where there _wasn't_ acidic gloop being pelted at her from a distance, and she really needed to figure out _how_ to get him down, as violently as possible. But therein lies a problem; he had the camera, and while Sagittarius could shoot him down, there was a good chance that the camera would get ruined as well - that meant no payday _and_ damages. Gajeel had preoccupied himself with systematically exterminating the remaining ground force of mages, most of who had been crushed under the superior weight and strength of the Iron Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail. Lucy wasn't quite sure if she hated the fact that Gajeel was ignoring her, or was flattered that he thought her as an equal who could protect themselves.

Lucy let out a fairly high pitched sheik as she narrowly missed a sizzling glob of toxic material.

Hated it. She hated Gajeel right now.

Taurus decided to hang back after that near-miss, but there was little the ecliptic zodiac could do apart from push Lucy out the way when the shots got too close. All in all, with the ground force being decimated by Gajeel, and Pantherlily preoccupied with keeping Jason alive, it was up to Lucy to take down that guy. Lucy had already taken down her share of enemies on the ground-level, but since Gajeel was busy play psycho-Dragon-Slayer in the corner, getting the camera back was now up to her. But _how the hell_ did she get it back without damaging it, and without being sizzled over by _whatever the hell_ that corrosive shit was.

There was no point in asking Taurus for a strategy - the bull was remarkably like Natsu in battle, and there was no choice for Lucy other than to recall the spirit. Taurus readily agreed to the gate closure; while the bull was always rearing for a battle, there was a good chance that Lucy would be seriously hurt if she kept him out as her spirit. With the spirit sent back to the celestial world, Lucy was left with all her other spirits to call upon, but _which_? The obvious choice was Sagittarius, what with his long-range and accurate attacks, but there was a real chance that the camera, _their payday_, would get broken in the scuffle. To defeat that mage, they needed to get the camera away from him, then her spirit could drill him with a well-placed shot.

It all revolved in getting that camera, but there was no way for Lucy to reach the opposing mage. Her fleuve d'étoiles didn't have that kind of reach, even if it was a spirit weapon, and the closest spirit she had to retrieval would be Gemini with their ability to fly in the air. But if she called upon the twins to reclaim the camera, then she had no way of attacking the offending mage, let alone defending herself from the barrage of attacks that were steadily coming her way. Pantherlily could probably fly up and snatch it, but that would require a distraction… _a distraction…_

And what was more distracting than a not-so-stable Iron Dragon Slayer rampaging towards you?

Now, to get Gajeel over.

"Gajeel, help!"

Admittedly, not the most stealthy of signals, but effective nonetheless – and it probably helped that the moment he looked over she just narrowly dodged a hunk of acid _or whatever the fuck it was_. And Gajeel arrived, first in the form of a massive roar ripping over her head, caving in part of the roof and a stack of rafters - _the slippery little bastard jumped out the way._ Then the Dragon Slayer was in front of her, teeth bared in a snarl as he stood firmly between Lucy and _Acid McGee_, and her heart fluttered a little at the display. But now was not the time to go all moony _(not that she would ever admit it_) over the Slayer, so Lucy closed the brief gap between them with a short step.

"I need you to distract him for a few minutes," Lucy whispered into his ear.

She got no affirmative response from him, but he did let out a feral snarl and hurl a handful of razor-sharp iron shards up at the mage - _who barely dodged._ Gajeel peeled away from Lucy, moving at a fair clip to the left, pointedly away from both Lucy and Pantherlily, and this was clearly not the first time that Gajeel had played decoy. With the enemy mage's attentions firmly affixed on the angry incoming Dragon Slayer, Lucy fled as quickly and as quietly as she could over to Lily, who had been given a brief breather by the massive scene Gajeel was causing. Jason, despite being in possibly mortal danger, looked like he was having the time of his life, snapping away with his back-up camera.

"Lily," Lucy beckoned.

The exceed fluttered onto her shoulder, his rounded ears perked and eyes firmly fixed on the few mages left converging on Gajeel. _Poor bastards._

"I need you to grab that camera. Don't worry about breaking the strap, just get it. I'll watch Jason," Lucy told him.

Lily nodded his little head, and used the still-ensuing chaos to zip off to one side unseen. Enemy mages were starting to converge on Gajeel, and although the Slayer could take the abuse, Lucy was begrudgingly worried about his injuries from Tartaros. He would never admit it, but he was favouring his uninjured side - Lucy could only see it because she had been working with him since. _Working with him_. Sweet Spirits, she had been working with Gajeel Redfox almost amicably, and she had _been sort-of enjoying herself._

But now was not the time for that. She needed to draw attention, however minimal, away from Gajeel, who was now getting battered from two different sides. _A quick fix_. She needed a quick fix... _yes!_

Her hands sought out her key by touch and the tug of supernatural power. With her hand firmly wrapped around the golden zodiac key, Lucy presented it to the heavens.

"Open! The gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!"

There was a flash of light as she unlocked the air in front of her, and the scorpion zodiac erupted onto the battlefield. Scorpio cried out his usual greetings, perpetual grin on his face - it had been a while since she had called out the scorpion zodiac for a fight.

"Scorpio, Sand Buster!" Lucy cried, jabbing her finger at the convergence of mages on Gajeel.

Scorpio knew - _all her spirits knew her intentions without her saying_ - and hunched over to let the whirlwind of sand explode from his tail. It careened along the trajectory that Lucy had pointed out, and just like her intentions, it slammed into the enemy mages and _just missed Gajeel by a hairsbreadth._ The Iron Dragon Slayer looked startled for a split second before the feral grin stretched across his face, and with one _massive_ roar, effectively eliminated the remaining ground forces in the warehouse. He always looked a bit manic in a battle, Lucy had noticed, and she could honestly say that Gajeel got more joy out of fighting than Natsu did, _which was a stretch_.

A tingling sensation on the back of her neck, the one that usually meant danger, compelled her to drop completely to the ground just in time to dodge more acid. She felt it whizz past her ear as she ducked, and the smell of burnt hair lodged in her nostrils. Rolling out the way and standing onto her knees found that the hair on the left side of her face was singed at the ends and corroded to brown. Lucy shrieked in both anger and alarm. Her hair! Her perfect, golden hair was ruined! That bastard!

A snarl ripped from somewhere above her head and she felt a heavy hand grab her - Lucy freaked out. She gave a sharp, piercing shriek and twisted and thrashed her body to get out the crushingly heavy grip on her arm. _Where the hell was Gajeel?!_

She was hauled upright suddenly, her alarmed eyes meeting angry-red ones, and her entire body went lax in the heavy grip. Gajeel had her by the arm, hauling her up onto her feet with a single hand. He had his iron scales activated along his arms and neck - _which explained the heavy, crushing sensation_ - and he looked almost comically _blank._ No rage, no anger; it was like he was caught in between conflicting emotions and just settled on blank. Lucy blinked. Since it was Gajeel who grabbed her, he must have stormed over when he heard her scream…

…?

_Was he worried about her?_

His eyes were averted now, his grip loosened but still solid around her bicep, his slitted eyes locked firmly on the singular enemy mage left in the rafters. Lucy's eyes were fixed on him as she watched something amazing; his lips twitched downwards, his sharp teeth bared, his brow crinkled and he _roared_. It wasn't magic, it was just anger; he had found his rage again, and Lucy could feel the rumbling vibration of his cry through her bones and her chest. There was nothing she had experienced in her life that could match that feeling.

Everything in his body language switched to aggressive, more so than usual, and if anyone thought he looked scary before, then they should see him now. Every hardened line of his body screamed anger, rage and violence; and now Lucy could really see what set him apart from Natsu. She thought she knew at least a little about Dragon Slayers - she had been partnered up with one the longest, after all - and when Natsu got angry he carried this aura of dragon-like rage. But it was carved into every fibre of Gajeel's reflexes, his animalistic anger and war-mongering, his fierce loyalty and his urge to _protect_…

Lucy shrieked as she was shoved backwards by Gajeel, and she heard him growl as he threw his arms up in front of his as a shield. Lucy heard the sizzling sound of the _Acid McGee_'s goop hitting something somewhere in front of her, and her instincts already had her back on her feet, whip in hand although it had _no use right now_. Gajeel was before her, iron-scaled arms thrown out in front of him in a cross pattern to protect himself, and Lucy could see the acid dripping off his scales. With an angry hiss from the Dragon Slayer, he flung the acid off his scaled arms; there was scalding on his scales, and Lucy dreaded to think what would have happened if Gajeel hadn't of activated his scales. That the attack was strong enough to damage dragon scales said enough.

Gajeel had thrown his arms up again, and again Lucy heard the sickening sound of corrosive liquid hitting the Dragon Slayer's scales. She didn't care how strong Gajeel boasted; he couldn't keep taking a beating like this - they had to retaliate, but _how?_ There was no way to land a melee attack on his while he was squirreled away in the rafters, and the bastard had already shown that he was quick enough to dodge Gajeel's roar, if only by a little bit. They needed a bigger attack angle, something that could hit wider than what _Acid McGee_ could escape from, and that meant that they were going to have to ramp up Gajeel's roar attack.

But _how?_ Gajeel already had a wide and powerful range to his _Houko_, and it wasn't like she could just ask Gajeel to ramp up the power. He always put his full power into his movements unless he was pitted against his nakama (not that he would claim he had them outside Lily). How, how, _how?!_ Maybe… maybe a joint attack might do the trick. She had been experimenting with these attacks with Natsu ever since the Tower of Heaven; since Lucy and Juvia created that massive attack with a clash of their power. Unison Raid, Master had called it; a rare feat where two compatible magics and people clash to create a powerful fusion attack. She doubted that she could Unison Raid with Gajeel. All his attacks were very physical, and she didn't think that you could combine physical attacks effectively - Natsu had tried with Loki, and failed miserably.

But physical would get them nowhere, because _that bastard_ was still in the rafters, targeting Gajeel who had taken to dodging now _unless it was aimed at Lucy._ Lucy realised what he was doing; Gajeel was both satisfying his need to protect along with giving her an opening to think up a plan. He was trusting her. That was probably the most startling thing about this situation - not the fact that he had kissed her not half an hour ago, but that he trusted her with a major situation. Gajeel was placing with little faith he had left from his violent jaded life in her right now, and Lucy _would not_ let him down. There was no way - this was too important to her; the respect of Gajeel Redfox.

_Right. _

She had to find a way to get Gajeel's roar to hit a wider area. If Gajeel could get into the rafters, then… no, the Slayer was much too heavy for those wooden beams to support his bulk. Lily could perform a sneak attack and knock him from the roofing… no, he was preoccupied with trying to find an opening to snatch away the camera. Maybe Gemini… no, that would conflict with Pantherlily's task. _Shit_, what could she do to knock that bastard down? She was running out of magical power from switching celestial spirits too much, and all she had left was Scorpio there and… and….

_Huh_.

Scorpio. Gajeel. Ranged attacks. Whirlwinds.

_Huh. _

_Why the hell not?_

It was the best option - it was the _only_ option to get _Acid McGee_ down from there; to use Scorpio's Sand Buster to add more wind and rotation to Gajeel's own roar. Scorpio twitched a bit, like he knew what Lucy was thinking, and shot an audacious wink at her; she often wondered how such a nice guy could date a hag like Aquarius.

Lucy dashed forwards and wrapped her hand in the back of his ratty tunic, giving it a short tug so that Gajeel _knew_ she was there. The Iron Dragon Slayer suddenly turned around and grabbed her, his iron scales clanging noisily, and threw himself to the side, Lucy and all. She knew it must have been to circumvent an oncoming attack, but she still let out a startled squeak at being suddenly crushed to him. His arms were wrapped firmly around her body like an iron vice, but she wasn't being choked for breath; it was right on the line for uncomfortable.

Lucy grabbed a handful of hair and tugged, and Gajeel made a hissy sound that echoed through her body and made her toes tingle, but she quickly snapped out of it. At the risk of losing a handful of hair, he had ducked down that bit so that Lucy was on eye-level with him. This was probably the closest she had been to the Iron Dragon Slayer's face… well, except for when they kissed and his _tongue_ licked her _teeth_ and…

_Fuck._ This wasn't the time. She could analyse it all she wanted later, when her _pretty hair_ was in danger of getting burnt again.

"When I give you the signal, launch a roar at him," Lucy whispered.

Their noses were almost touching, and her heart was hammering so hard in her chest that she was sure that Gajeel could hear it. But she was looking right into his eyes, and they were actually quite a pretty colour, and those slitted pupils were locked onto her, getting _wider and wider_…

Gajeel threw an arm up, changed into iron and flattened, so that the glob of acid hit his sword instead of her face. Too close. Too dangerous.

And she didn't mean that attack.

From under the protective veneer of Gajeel's iron and anger, Lucy sought out Pantherlily - and spotted him. She only found him because she was looking for the small exceed; he had managed to wheedle his way _right_ up behind the dirtbag mage and was _just_ looking for an opening. Well, Lucy could create that.

"Lily, now!" Lucy shrieked, pointing directly at _Acid McGee_.

Gajeel was looking back at her like she had lost her last marbles, but she got the reaction from _rafters-bat_ that she was looking for. With a very startled look on his face, the enemy mage turned around as much as he could, contorting his torso and…

Pantherlily dashed forwards and latched onto the camera, kicking off the enemy mage's chest with as much force as he could. It resulted in a rather sickening snap of the camera's strap, but it came loose and Lily fell to the floor. The exceed easily regained his posture, wings outstretched, and levelled out before hitting the floor. And Pantherlily was out of there, putting as much distance between himself and the enemy mage as he could - and leaving the fight to Lucy and Gajeel. Gajeel had a very toothy smirk on his face, his red eyes looking back at her; and Lucy did believe that she had just gotten his approval. Adrenalin coursing through her body was making her toes tingle and her nerves rubbed raw, and _those_ ruby-red eyes weren't helping.

That _acidic A-hole_ snapped back to Lucy, eyes full of rage. Lucy crinkled her nose and glared back; she might have been weary or even intimidated under different circumstances, but she had a plan. Lucy smirked in a way that would make Gajeel proud, her fingers still twined in the back of his tunic, and tugged gently. She could feel the powerful muscles in his back lock up, his stance harden as he turned to fully face the last mage left standing. Lucy found herself standing beside Gajeel instead of being shielded by him, and her fingers left the back of his tunic to throw her arm out in front of her.

"Scorpio, _Sand Buster_!" Lucy ordered

It was almost like slow motion as she watched her celestial spirit's aim his tail, watching the metal plates shift individually as the sandstorm worked it way through his tail to explode out the tip. And that same second, it felt like her hair was standing on end as she felt the mass of power welling beside her in the Slayer. It exploded out of Gajeel's mouth not a split-second later, and it always amazed her to see a roar released so close. Her attack and Gajeel's _Houko_ met half way to the enemy mage, and Lucy bit her lip in the hopes that _this would work_, because _Acid A-hole_ was just about to jump out the way.

Then their attacks clashed. For a second, it looked like they were cancelling each other out; then Lucy heard a noise like nothing she had ever heard, like rushing wind and creaking and then _exploding_. Where the roar and sand met in the air changed colour, and the resulting whirlwind was _so freakin' huge_ that Lucy was getting _sucked in_. And she would have if Gajeel's hadn't of grabbed her by the back of her shirt and dragged her back to the ground, his iron-scaled arm firmly around her and keeping her weighted down. And Gajeel was watching in dark glee as the exploding sand and iron whirlwind tore through the roof.

_The whole roof._

They took out the entire roof of the goddam building! _Fuck,_ Natsu would be so proud of her right now.

But what was more amazing was that it had worked. Her magic had fused with Gajeel's perfectly to create a Unison Raid. The last of the wind was whipping away, and she could see only the legs of their enemy mage, caught in the rubble of the rafters, but _oh my god, Unison Raid!_ Lucy couldn't contain her excited squeal, and from what she would later say was adrenalin, she spun around and threw her arms around Gajeel's neck. Gajeel went bone-wrenching stiff against her, but she was still riding the high of _Unison Raid_, and he still had his arm around her waist.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"They sure come out with these quick, don't they?" Lucy mused.

Gajeel and Lucy were walking down the canal road of Magnolia that afternoon, and her apartment was in sight from down the road. In her hands was a copy of _Sorcerer's Weekly_, and right there, on the cover, but more importantly with a double spread in the middle, was Jason's special on her and Gajeel. _Fairy Tail's Deadly Duo: Unison Raid Caught On Camera!_ She didn't care much for the title nor the pictures that included the massive carnage of the building, but the main picture in the centre was _amazing_. Jason had somehow managed to get a picture of Gajeel in mid-roar of their _unison raid_, his face twisted in a feral anger and enjoyment. And Lucy was next to him, her hand thrust out with Scorpio in front of her, releasing the _sand buster_. She looked unusually tough in the picture, but thankfully Jason had caught the side _without_ the singed hair, at least.

Lucy tilted the double-page to get a better look at the pictures on the side, and Gajeel grabbed her arm before she could go head-first into the canal. She nodded vaguely to the Iron Dragon Slayer, and then blushed horribly when she got the next page of the magazine. There was a half-page picture of Lucy _hugging_ the Dragon Slayer, her arms around his neck and his hand very dangerously low on her hip. _Oh sweet god_, it looked like they were having an after-battle booty call _right then and there_.

"What're you doing?"

Lucy stared. Gajeel still had a grip on her arm, but they were standing in front of her apartment, and Lucy was pretty sure her face was horribly red. She jerked her arm away from him, and tried to say something but it came out a singular, unintelligible noise. Gajeel blinked in surprise.

"Spazz," he snorted.

Lucy couldn't. She just…. she just couldn't. Not after the kiss, and him protecting her, and his _hands on her_. He was too damn angry and pushy and _sexy_ and if he ever saw that magazine then Lucy would _kill someone!_

"ThanksIgottagobye!" Lucy rushed.

She dashed past him and up the stairs to her apartment, and she felt like her face was melting off from the heat. She fished her house keys out of her pockets, and it took a moment of fumbling to find her home key instead of trying to put Aquarius's key in her lock. The heat was clearly affecting her brain.

But when she put her key in the lock, she paused. There was this odd _thump-thump_ noise coming from the road below. With a frown, she turned the key and grabbed the handle of her door.

"Lucy!"

She stared as Gajeel came storming up the stairs, his jaw clenched and teeth bared and eyes wide. She was pretty sure that was the first time he had ever called her by her name before, but Lucy had never seen such a look on the older mage before, and his urgency was baffling to her. She pushed her door open, intending to invite him in before her landlady came down to investigate the less than quiet Slayer.

Dead silence.

She heard a click.

She watched Gajeel's face morph into _something_, something tragic and angry and _why was he so upset? _Then she smelt iron and sulphur, felt the harsh wind on her face and boiling heat on her skin. She turned her head and saw an orange-red inferno rushing towards her.

And then Lucy saw nothing but white.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Author's note:

Umm…

Don't hate me?

Please?

Ave.


	12. You Won't Feel A Thing

Warning: swearing (Gajeel's potty mouth…err brain); descriptive wounds (icky); explosive aftermath (hey, that works on two levels); romantic entanglement (finally); ruined chances (cock!blocked!)

Thanks for all the love and support, reviewers! It is most certainly felt.

Also, some of you have jumped to conclusion at the end of last chapter that the explosion was Natsu. Can I point out, in what universe would Natsu _attack Lucy_ in the hopes of getting to Gajeel? He would just punch Gajeel.

So, no. It wasn't Natsu. He won't be in this for another few chapters. And it won't be subtle. He's not a subtle man.

I know this update has taken a while to put out, but I've been busy. First my laptop blew, so I had to get a new one and restart this chapter from scratch. And I'm in a wheelchair now, so. Yeah.

This chapter is split into 3 sections. The first two are from Gajeel's perspective; the last is from Lucy's. Just so you know.

Song by The Script

_Chapter 12 – You Won't Feel A Thing_

_Shit_. Gajeel grit his teeth at the pain blossoming all over his body. _Shit, that hurts_. It felt like Metalicana had sat on him again and broke six of his ribs and fractured his back. But all his limbs moved, quite unhappily, but everything seemed intact. It would have been a _fuckload_ worse if he hadn't of managed to activate his dragon scales _just_ as the explosion hit. But _fuck it all, that hurt!_ He had been blown up before, on several occasions, but _that_ hurt like _all fuck!_

His ribs screamed at the motions of breathing, and there was definitely something wrong with his left leg. Pain and adrenalin was mixing in his head, and his nerves were kicking into overdrive and _fuck it hurt, those fucking bastards!_ He was going to rip apart whoever had set off the _damn_ bomb with his bare hands! He flinched and hissed when he tried to move his leg. Definitely broken. Despite the pain, Gajeel forced himself to move.

Lucy was curled up in a ball beneath him, and Gajeel was pretty sure he might have crushed her. He had smelt something very wrong when she fled his presence down on the street, and every fibre of his being and senses screamed something was amiss. Then he had smelt it. Gas, oil, metal, fire. Not things that were ever found in the bunny girl's apartment. It had clicked over instantly in his mind. _He knew that smell_. Bomb. Tartaros. _Lucy!_ He could recall vividly the look on her face when she opened her door. Her face went slack, almost disbelieving, and almost radiant in the orange glow of the oncoming inferno.

But he didn't get to her fast enough.

Gajeel howled as he rolled off of Lucy, pulling himself onto his side to tug Lucy onto her back. The back of her arms were badly burnt from where she had tried to shield herself before Gajeel got there, the skin black and charred and peeling away her tender pink flesh. The side of her neck and face were in no better shape, the soft tan skin blackening, wrinkling and peeling away from her body. There was a long laceration to her tender side, although very shallow, but it was bleeding too much. She was loosing too much blood.

Gajeel threw his head back and roared. All the anger and pain and _sadness_ welled up and exploded out his mouth, and the ruined foundations of her apartment shook under the force of his emotions. He tore off the remains of his tunic, using his teeth to tear it into strips long enough to pack and bind the gash across her belly. There was nothing he could do for the burns across her arms and face, but she would live with those wounds; she wouldn't if he didn't attend to her stomach.

Her clothing was in a better state than his, and she remained oddly modestly covered for such a situation. Gajeel's senses were kicking into overdrive now. Lucy was unconsious and had lost blood, her skin burnt and destroyed. His leg was broken, by his best guess, and he had taken the brunt of the explosion with his own body. It was possible that Tartaros mages were still hanging around, and in the state they were in, there was no way they could put up a resistance. But Lucy's apartment was in a heavily populated area, and it wouldn't be long before someone came.

Gajeel only hoped it was someone from Fairy Tail.

Luck, it seemed for a change, was on his side right now.

"Gajeel! Lucy!"

It was Panther Lily. He burst through the ruined walls of Lucy's place in his Battle Shill, eyes flicking across the carnage in search of the bodies of his comrades. Gajeel was glad that they had parted ways at the train station now, sending Lily back ahead of him while he walked the blonde home.

Lily came rushing over to them, eyes full of panic and worry.

"Gajeel!? Shit, Lucy!"

The exceed diverted the moment he saw Lucy, hands fluttering worriedly above her prone form. Panther Lily was his best friend and treasured partner, but he wanted to smack the dark exceed's hand away from Lucy. She was hurt and vulnerable and unconsious and _he had to help her._ It rippled through his whole body. _Save the girl. Save Lucy_.

"Lily, go get help," Gajeel growled.

"What?" Lily said incredulously. "You can't be serious…"

"Go to Fairy Tail," Gajeel roared over the top of him. "Hurry! She won't last long".

Lucy whimpered, but showed no signs of awakening. She was in pain, and it made Gajeel's own injuries ache more and striped bare his nerves. It seemed to be the clincher to Panther Lily, though, because in a split second, he reverted to his smaller form, activated his Aera, and took off through the smoke and crumbling roof. Gajeel gritted his teeth to the pain to pull himself more upright and assess the area.

The entire front of her apartment that overlooked the canal had been blown out. Her furniture and clothes lay in splinters and rags around them, and Gajeel would guess, out on the street. His ears were still ringing from the force of the blast, but he could hear panic out on the streets, people running around aimlessly and in fear. Parts of the wooden scaffolding of her home was still on fire, but at least the smoke had somewhere to funnel out of instead of suffocating them.

They had wound up just inside the ruined doorframe of her home, the force of the blast rebounding them off the hallway wall and into the inferno and rubble. He had gotten to Lucy just in time to shield her from hitting the wall, but got himself caught in the explosion. He found himself wishing, for the first time, that the flame brain was here to have eaten the flames - even if Gajeel couldn't stand the little shit. But his own grievances were pushed aside when Lucy whimpered pitifully once more, and something in Gajeel _wrenched_.

Using his shaky strength, Gajeel pulled himself forwards a few feet to the crumbling wall. There was enough support left there to prop himself against, even if the pain from moving was making his vision blur. He reached down, and very carefully shifted Lucy onto her side and pulled her closer to him. Lucy choked on her breath, and he saw her eyelashes flutter before going dead still once more. She was in too much pain. He moved her as best he could, lying her body between his legs and her head on his lap, all the time being mindful of her wounds and completely ignoring his own.

The edges of his vision was getting darker and darker, but he kept himself awake and semi-alert and he couldn't tear his eyes away from her face. Her pretty skin singed, her golden hair charred and in disarray. She would never stand for looking this way in any situation, he knew, and a small, odd part of his tried to smooth down her hair into something a little more orderly. Lucy hadn't made another noise since then, and Gajeel had no idea how long ago Lily had left or how long he had been sitting here with Lucy. Or if Lily had even been here; it might've been an illusion of his injured brain. It wouldn't be the first time he had hallucinated after getting his brain rattled.

He could already be dying right now, and this was just all in his head. Gajeel hissed and rested his head back against the ruined plaster of her wall. Fine. He could die.

_Just let her be alright_

XXXXXXXXXXX

Footsteps. He could hear footsteps and voices and smell people. The voices were fuzzy and made no sense, but they were there and loud and Gajeel was almost convinced that they were real. Things just weren't clicking in his head, and he couldn't place sounds well enough to know where they were coming from, but they were there. And getting closer.

His brain and brawn screamed in protest as she shifted a little to draw Lucy closer to him. He could feel her warmth and heartbeat; a little piece of comfort in the hell of a situation, but she was _alive_. The smells and sounds were so close now, and Gajeel growled in the back of his throat, warning them away. _Keep your distance! Stay away from us! I'll kill you!_

But there were hands on him; small, shaking hands and he could smell fresh air and _he knew those hands_. Those hands, that smell, the hint of lost magic; Wendy was kneeling beside him, her little hands pressing against Gajeel's side and flowing her power into him. Everything still hurt, but it was gradually easing as the seconds ticked past, and his eyelids got lighter and lighter until he could almost open them. Lily must have gotten back to Fairy Tail safely, because as his head got clearer and clearer, he could place the smells of the guild. _Wendy, Cana, Bisca, Alzak, Bixlow, Freid, Evergreen, Mirajane, Elfman, the Master_.

Gajeel didn't think he had ever felt this relieved. Even if they were off-the-wall crazy, they were reliable as _fuck_ in a bad situation. There were a few other smells he couldn't place, but they didn't bring any bad feelings, so he let them be. All that mattered was help was here, and Lucy was still alive and near.

But fingers were prying his arms from around her, and he felt her warmth drawing away… his eyes snapped open, teeth bared and Gajeel _roared_. His hands flew up on instinct and grabbed onto the blonde mage, and _fuck it hurt but don't take her!_ Someone was shouting at him and huge hands pinned him back and down, and Gajeel thrashed and clawed at the massive appendages. He sunk his teeth into flesh and scraped with his claws but they refused to move - he didn't have enough power left to use a _Houko _or activate his sword or club, but he fought as best as he could.

A sharp blow to the back of his head rattled him, and he released his captor's hand. Gajeel's vision danced as he tried to pull himself together, but a face appeared directly in front of his, and smaller hands pressed against his cheek. It was Master Makarov, his face solemn but stern, small wrinkled hands anchoring Gajeel back to the real world. Wendy had firmly attached herself to his side, her small arms wrapped around his waist in an effort to stop him moving, her small back trembling. It was then that Gajeel realised that he was holding his breath and there was a metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Gajeel spat out the blood and took a shaky breath.

The wreckage of Lucy's apartment seemed more pronounced than before, now that Fairy Tail was there and sifting through the rubble. _Oddly normal for Fairy Tail_. But his eyes kept searching until they fell on Lucy. She was lying on the floor not six feet from him, and hunched over her was Porlyusica, her face tight with concentration as she healed the blonde. Tension fled his body as he watched the skin on the back of her arms repair itself, her complexion clear and her face still. He was barely aware of Wendy healing him, or the fact that he had slumped over; Lucy was okay now.

Taking in a shuddering breath, Gajeel moved his arm to drape it over Wendy's back. He must have given the girl a hell of a scare, because she was still shaking a bit even as she funnelled her power into his wounds. But her little face was screwed up in concentration, and she was growing more confident by the minute. Gajeel couldn't have been prouder of her right now.

"Gajeel."

Makarov sat down across from him, his old face stern. Gajeel knew what the old man wanted, but Gajeel had _no fucking idea_ what to tell him.

"What happened here, m'boy?" the Master asked.

"I smelt something odd," Gajeel started.

His voice sounded weird of him, scratchy and raw. Too much smoke, Gajeel guessed. Wendy moved her hands up to his throat, and while it made him tense, she touched it very gently and started healing his damaged vocal chords.

"It didn't click until Lucy opened her door what it was. I didn't get to her quick enough."

He looked at the blonde, prone on the scorched floor of her destroyed apartment. This was all his fault. He had gotten her involved in his business, and now she was in the crossfire between him and Tartaros.

Gajeel grit his teeth.

"The fuckers put a bomb in her apartment," Gajeel growled.

He had never meant for something like this to happen, although it was a bit too late for these kinds of platitudes. The Slayer knew that he had been putting Lucy in danger, but not in danger of a direct Tartaros attack against her. He was prepared for mages to attack _him_, not _her._

"If you hadn't of gotten to her, she'd be dead," Makarov told him.

The old man had anger and sorrow in his eyes, Gajeel knew that Tartaros had declared war on the whole of Fairy Tail by attacking one of the Master's 'children'. Gajeel had been on the end of that kind of rage before, and did not want to visit it again. But _how_ could Tartaros' have known about her? Did they have him under surveillance - _no_, then they would have attacked Wendy first over Lucy. Gajeel showed more obvious affection to the girl than the blonde, and Wendy was the more obvious target out of the two women.

They couldn't be just attacking Fairy Tail mages willy-nilly - Gajeel was the one who was in their sights, so _why the girl?_

Then it clicked. There was a mostly-burnt pile of silicone and ash an arms length away, where he had first awoken with Lucy. _He knew_.

"Sorcerer's Weekly did a special on us while we were there," Gajeel muttered aloud. "Photos, gushing headlines, page spreads."

Makarov's eyes hardened. _That had to be it_. It made the most sense, why other Fairy Tail members hadn't been attacked and why they chose to single out Lucy over Wendy. Tartaros had seen the pictures of the two of them together, fighting off that pathetic excuse for a dark guild; the photo of them hugging, and had immediately decided that Lucy was the better target to get to him. _And it was working_.

"They're attacking the weaker link to get to you," Makarov mused darkly.

"She's not…" Gajeel muttered.

"What?" Makarov asked.

"She's not weak!" Gajeel roared back.

_Lucy was not weak!_ She was the strongest woman that Gajeel had ever met, if not the most annoying, touchy-feely, loud and stubborn. Lucy was obnoxious and probing and overly-sensitive and competitive, but she was _not_ _weak_.

Makarov turned a stern eye to the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"I know that, even better than you do. But it's how Tartaros must see her," the old man replied sternly.

Gajeel couldn't refute that. He didn't like it, but he couldn't refute it.

"Porlyusica!" Makarov called, "How's the girl?"

The elderly mage glared over at him, but he didn't take it to heart. Gajeel had only met her a handful of times in emergencies, but the woman was basically a part of Fairy Tail, whether she liked it or not. And Wendy seemed to get blushy and vague around her - hero worship, perhaps?

"You crushed her," Porlyusica said matter-of-factly.

Gajeel winced, which sent Wendy into a small panic attack, thinking her healing had gone wrong, and Makarov muttered to himself and glared at Porlyusica's back.

"It saved her," the healer amended. "She'll make a full recovery. Worry about yourself, boy."

_Full recovery_. Gajeel didn't think he had heard anything quite so amazing in his life. Lucy was going to be okay. And all the fatigue hit him like a pile of bricks, and his head felt too heavy for his neck to hold up, and all his limbs went unusually limp. He could feel Makarov's hand patting his shoulder, and Wendy's little hands fluttering about in a panic, but _fucking shit_, Lucy would be alright. The relief must have been evident on his face because Makarov snickered.

"Get some rest, m'boy. You deserve it," the old man said.

Gajeel released a long breath he didn't know he had been holding. It took him longer than he'd like to stand up, to the protests of Wendy and the shock of the guild, but he managed to kind-of walk over to where Lucy was. He more fell than sat beside her prone form, and Porlyusica was glaring at him but steadily doing her work. The skin on her neck and arms had been repaired, and if he hadn't of seen the wound first hand, they he never would have guessed. Gajeel reached out and pressed his hand against the side of her neck.

_Warm_. It was warmer there than the rest of her skin. The colour was slightly off, too - more pink than the tan of her skin. The same went for her arms, which Gajeel touched and examined with a gentleness that he didn't know he had. Her well cared-for golden hair couldn't be fixed by magic, but in his eyes, it was a decent enough trade off for her _to live_ than to have perfect hair. She probably wouldn't see it that way.

Gajeel smiled a bit to himself, let his chin touch his chest, and passed out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Pain. It hurt_. Everything hurt. Lucy cringed. It felt like Natsu had slammed into her with his usual bull-headed approach to things. Usual – but painful.

What had happened? Why did she hurt so much? Lucy couldn't quite recall much past a flash of brilliant orange-red. Had it been Natsu? Did she get caught in the crossfire of one of his attacks? _No, I was at home_. Natsu knew the penalty of activating, even thinking of, magic inside her home - and it was not one he was eagre to repeat. Besides, Natsu was… he was away, wasn't he? Gone off with her friends and Lisanna to do some quest on the outskirts of Fiore.

_Then how…?_

Then it came back to her. Her apartment door. The click. Gajeel's terrified face. The heat and wind… _She had been blown up._

Her eyes snapped open as her heart started thundering in her chest. Everything in front of her was blurry - too blurry - and all she could see was light, white light everywhere and nothing else.

_Was she dead?_ Lucy didn't want to die. She wanted to live. She wanted to sit at the bar with Mirajane, and run away from Master's groping hands. Lucy wanted to hug Gray again and avoid Erza's bearhugs and punch Natsu in the head for starting another brawl. She wanted to take little Wendy out shopping and get her some grown-up clothes, and get Charle something pretty, too, and convince Lily to stop being stern for a little while and come out with them.

Lucy wanted to see Gajeel. She wanted to see him again; his smouldering scarlet eyes and jagged grin and tough stoic-ness and the _soppy mess_ that existed underneath. She wanted to punch him for being a jackass and yell right back at the Slayer and be folded in his strong arms but _never too tightly_.

The more rapidly she blinked, the more the white light began to fade out, and her mind was having a hard time processing the fact that she was seeing a ceiling. _Were there ceilings in Heaven?_ _Mama never said anything about that._ But as her brain scooted through her knowledge, she realised that it was a ceiling that she had seen several times before on many occasions - it was Fairy Tail's infirmary. _Infirmary?_ Then that meant… _oh._ Not dead. Not in Heaven.

Lucy winced when she tried to move. _But still blown up_.

Why had this happened to her? She hadn't pissed off anyone half as much as the rest of Fairy Tail had… Oh. _Oh._ _Tartaros_. Right. She had forgotten about them. But they were less after her and more after…

After…

_Where was Gajeel?_ He had been there, with her, when the explosion hit. Was he okay? Gajeel had taken a hell of a battering over the last few days than Lucy had seen him take, but taking a hit like that at close range… _shit, was he okay? _She didn't know anyone who could take a battering like that except for Erza and… _no_, even Erza wouldn't of been able to endure that hit.

_Dammit! Gajeel!_

Lucy, ignoring her aching muscles and booming headache, pushed herself upright in the infirmary bed. It was only the second time that she had ever been in one, and oddly enough, both times involved Gajeel. She grit her teeth as her _bones_ ached at the actions, but she had to know; he could be bleeding out in an alley again. Lucy didn't think she could go through that again, all the worry. And new bedding.

But a large hand was pushing her down, and fear gripped Lucy. Was it Tartaros - was she actually in Tartaros's infirmary? Just when she thought to thrashing away from her captor, a face came into view above hers. Crimson eyes, studded eyebrows and chin, strong jaw, jagged teeth. Lucy had never been so happy to see that scary son-of-a-bitch before.

Lucy reached up and grabbed his thick hair, pulling him down to wind her arms around his strong neck and _sobbed_. She had been _blown up_ and it was _scary_ but he was _okay_ and she was sore but _okay_ and _holy fucking stars_, Lucy had never been so happy before. Gajeel's large hands were on her arms, stroking from her wrists to her shoulder, and Lucy had no idea why but she wasn't willing to push away the contact. Her frantic mind was working in overtime trying to process too much information at once, because she could still smell smoke and burnt wood on Gajeel, and that meant…

Her mind stalled as Gajeel shoved her away roughly, to just as roughly be pulled into a kiss. His mouth was hot against hers and Lucy had no power to resist him. _She didn't want to resist him_. Instead she wound her arms back around his neck as one of his large hands rested on the back of her neck and kissed back. She could feel his sharp teeth pulling on her bottom lip, his tongue darting out to lave along her teeth and Lucy just _succumbed_. She opened her mouth and let Gajeel do what he wanted, what he wanted to do last time, and let the feelings he was provoking wash away everything else.

Everything around her dulled, and the pain in her body floated away as Gajeel's hand roughly pulled her body to align her underneath him. Lucy didn't care because it felt like he was trying to _devour_ her, and everything was hot like the explosion but not like it at all. His tongue was stroking over hers, and she could feel his sharp teeth against hers and _holy shit,_ he could kiss. She was quickly loosing any fight for optional participation as Gajeel got more aggressive with his movements, hands gripping her waist and neck and lips…._ Oh god, lips…_

Lucy made an embarrassing whiney sound when Gajeel let her breathe for a moment, and the Slayer made that amazing rumbly-growl in his throat that made Lucy's whole body shake in response. Everything blurred; the pain, the fear and the worry - all that was left was Gajeel's mouth and hands on her, his smell and her _happiness_. It might be odd to find happiness in this situation, but Lucy knew she was going to be okay, and Gajeel obviously so, and they were both _alive_ and he was _kissing her_. That's all that mattered right now.

"Ahem," a voice echoed. "Perhaps we should come back another time."

Gajeel stopped his actions, made an angry noise and glared over his should and Lucy _froze_. There… there had been people there _the whole time?_ And Gajeel had know?! Lucy's anger took over, and with a force she didn't think she could muster at the moment, slugged the Iron Dragon Slayer in the jaw. Gajeel jumped back on instinct, and now Lucy could see the faces of Master Makarov and Porlyusica. The old healer had that stern look on her face that meant she was going to say something offensive (not that she ever didn't), but thankfully (or not so), the Master cut her off.

"Good to see you're both feeling… better," Makarov said dryly.

Lucy cringed, blushed, and pulled the sheets over her head. She felt the bed dip near her head, and knew that Gajeel had sat down at the top of her bed. How the Dragon Slayer didn't have a sense of embarrassment or even propriety made her head spin sometimes. If she had known that the Master and Porlyusica were there, she never would have… never… _damn, he could kiss, though._

No. Wait, bad mind. Repress.

Lucy worked up the courage to peel back her sheet. Gajeel was looking stoic and irritated like always, Porlyusica was stern and disinterested, and Makarov was _smiling_. But he quickly sobered up, a dour look spreading across his old face. The Master walked slowly over to her bed, and gently grasped her hand.

"I'm sorry, m'girl," Makarov apologised. He looked gutted. "This should never have happened. Not to you, not to anyone."

The pain was coming back, spreading throughout her muscles and making her tired, but she still smiled at Makarov. He may be odd and fairly perverted, but he cared for his guild very much, maybe even more so than Natsu.

"Not your fault, Master. It's Tartaros," Lucy mumbled.

She felt too fatigued now. The pain and emotional backlash of _being blown up_ had gotten to her, and all she wanted to do was get some sleep. Makarov patted her hand kindly, giving her a wry smile.

"I'll leave you two to, ah, get some sleep," Makarov said lightly.

Lucy blushed like mad and tried to splutter out a response, but the Master was laughing too rambunctiously. He left loudly with Porlyusica, who had said nothing but her dark stare said it all. And suddenly, she was alone. With Gajeel. Lucy peered up at him, cheeks stained red, and he was looking straight at the door that had just closed, his jaw set hard and his eyes sharp.

Gajeel still wasn't looking at her when his hand gently touched the top of her head.

"Sleep," he ordered.

She wanted to argue with him, ordering her about like that, but she was tired and Gajeel was here so she felt _safe_. With a blush still staining her cheeks, Lucy rolled onto her side to try and stop the throbbing, but only ended up winding herself. She curled over until her forehead touched Gajeel's hip, and decided _fuck it_, she was going to sleep. His hand had shifted to the back of her head, and his thumb was slowly stroking the back if her neck. And he still wouldn't look at her.

_Heh_. So Gajeel. _What a jackass_, Lucy thought as she fell asleep.


	13. Angel's Cry

Here ye lies: Destruction (Lucy's poor, abused apartment); family (Fairy Tail's got your back, even if you don't want them); Caring (in the Gajeel-is-awkward way); grabby hands (our tsundere Dragon Slayer); inferiority complex (poor Lucy, why do I do this to you?);

**Ola**. It's been a while, I know, but for those of you who've been following me for a lil' bit, you'll know I have serious medical issues. But meh. Excuses, excuses.

More 'romance' inbound. If you can call it that. You can't really. Gajeel doesn't have a romantic bone in his body. Lucy might, though.

Umm, sort-of edited. Edited-ish. And all those words.

Song by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

_Chapter 13 – Angel's Cry_

As a highly ranked and esteemed mage of Fairy Tail, Lucy had seen a lot of destruction in her time in the guild. Admittedly, most of it was inflicted by Natsu in a show of enthusiasm, or Erza in rage… and occasionally Gray when he wanted to. Gajeel had his fair run of breaking stuff, and she wasn't even going to touch Mirajane's passive-aggressive rage issues. But the point was that although destruction was a casual and expected part of Fairy Tail life, it had never been _personal_ before.

Well, once, when the guild was razed to the ground, but Lucy had much more pressing issues at that time then a broken building. Ironically, also the first time she met Gajeel.

But that wasn't the point – the point was there was a hole in her floor where her beloved mismatched chairs and table were. She could see right down into Mrs. Brightman's apartment kitchen, and what she could see down there was shreds of her furniture, clothes and personal life. Her brand-spanking new bed was dangling off its broken frame, and Lucy knew enough about broken things to know it was a complete write-off. Her beloved _(god she loved it_) bathroom now had a very open floor plan, and her bathroom sink was now embedded in the far wall. It was tragic, yes, but the thing that really set it off was the crumpled and slightly burnt piece of paper next to her shoe.

The letters to her mother

They were little more than a smouldering heap next to the woodchip pile that was her desk, and she could feel her eyes watering just looking at them. A soft hand slipped into hers, and Lucy didn't have to look up to see it was Mirajane, just like she didn't have to open her eyes to know that the small arms around her waist now were Levy's. She had promised herself that she wouldn't cry if she came back here – she would be angry and rage and find those _bastards_ who did this to her home – but now she was sobbing, tears slipping from her eyes and _fuck, _they wouldn't stop.

Gajeel had warned her that if she started '_any of those girly fuckin emotions_' that he would drop her off the side of the building into the river to cool her head. She had never heard the Dragon Slayer give such an empty threat before, but it gave her the strength and courage to come back here, where there was fear and pain and sadness _and_ _Gajeel_. She could hear the not-so-subtle thundering footsteps of the agitated slayer, the soft flapping of exceed wings, and _God she wanted Erza so much right now_. Erza made everything better, and she could sure as hell use a Gray-hug, and maybe even Natsu's inept show of worry and affection.

Lucy hiccupped loud enough for Mira to gently cradle Lucy in her arms, Levy still attached to her waist, and Lucy tucked her head underneath Mira's chin. This was how her mother's arms used to feel – it was one of the few things she remembered about the woman. Lucy let herself sag a bit in the arms of the two Fairy Tail mages - _Stars, she loved these people_ - and let herself cry a bit. It was a perfectly natural feeling to have, seeing your life scattered and destroyed like this, but it still made her feel that little bit weak. She already _knew_ that she was weak compared to a lot of the Fairy Tail mages - hell, she was the weakest in her 'team' (probably why they had left her behind) - and it wasn't a feeling she relished but the tears just wouldn't stop.

Mirajane held her until Lucy ran out of tears, and the blonde knew that Mira was crying too, but didn't say a thing. Thinking Lisanna was dead for so long made Mira very sensitive to other's feelings, and Fairy Tail was family to all of them - and the Take Over mage couldn't handle _actually_ losing a teammate. The whole time Lucy could hear the _crunch crunch _of Gajeel's heavy boots on the scarred timber floor, going from here to there, but always close and always circling her. It was an odd thing to notice, but it was rhythmic and puzzling until Lucy realised that Gajeel was pacing around her.

It made her heart race, but Lucy tried to push it to the back of her mind - there were more pressing things to think about than Gajeel (_and Stars that man could kiss!_). Lucy sucked in a breath between her teeth and gently detached herself from the women comforting her – Mira let her go gracefully, Levy not so much. Her apartment was trashed, _yes_, and she had lost all her letters and clothes, _yes_, but she was alive, and that was the real achievement. She was alive and Gajeel was alive, and Fairy Tail was now out for blood against Tartaros, and Lucy couldn't think of a more dangerous enemy than Fairy Tail. They were crazy and silly and a little bit angry at times, but they were reliable and they were _strong_.

Cana was stalking around like an angry leopard, slinky and dangerous; Bisca and Alzak were oddly stern, their weapons drawn and faces dark; Elfman was somewhere pouting and scowling, which probably looked threatening to anyone who hadn't seen him in his underwear. Lucy wondered what Natsu would do, coming back to see Lucy's (aka his) apartment in this state; Erza would flip out in anger, and Gray would be livid until he saw Lucy and hug the crap out of her, but Natsu was an unknown. He cared about his nakama without a doubt, and while being thick-headed and stubborn, he had a volatile temper at times. What surprised Lucy the most, though, was that Makarov and Porlyusica were there, huddled in a mostly-walled corner and whispering in hushed voices.

Makarov caught her eye and beckoned her over, his face stern but his eyes soft - after all, one of his "children" had been hurt. Threading a hand through her shortened hair in nervousness, Lucy carefully walked over the shattered wood flooring towards the Master. Gajeel pasted closely behind her, and she could feel his large hand gently skim along her lower back before disappearing with the Dragon Slayer. A light blush came to Lucy's cheeks, and she felt that little more confident approaching the Master and the ever-grumpy Porlyusica.

"Lucy, child. How are you doing?" Makarov asked

His old face had softened, and she could see his eyes straying to her arms and face. Gajeel had told her the extent of her injuries, how she had lost some length on her hair and why the skin on her arms, neck and cheek were a slightly different colour and texture to the rest of her. He told her that she had fractures and broken bones from him crushing her, but never mentioned what Lucy had already figured out: he had saved her. That huge, annoying, pathologically psychotic Dragon Slayer with a soft streak had saved her.

"I'm okay, Master Makarov," Lucy replied quietly.

Porlyusica was eyeing her off like a piece of meat, and it was making Lucy more than a little nervous. But refocusing on Makarov made her chest hurt because he was looking at her like she really was his child, just like how Lucy wished her _real_ father would look at her. It made her eyes blur again, but she had cried too much with Mira to start up again.

"What do you remember, my girl?" Makarov asked her.

His tone was gentle but commanding, and Lucy found herself nodding without permission.

"I was going up to my apartment," Lucy told him. "Everything looked normal, but….umm…. my mind was on other things."

_Like his large hands on her, his body pressed against her, his lips…_

Her face went bright red, she was sure, because Porlyusica cleared her throat and the Master had a hint of a smirk on his face.

"I fumbled with my keys a bit," Lucy admitted "and when I found the right key, I put it in the door, then Gajeel came storming up the stairwell."

She could remember the look on his face, eyes wide with surprise and worry, sharp teeth bared and angular jaw clenched. It was so clear in her mind, the look on her face - Lucy doubted she'd ever forget it.

"I opened my door and there was just dead quiet. There was this clicking noise, and then there was wind and heat and… and…"

Lucy was crying again. She could feel the heat of the fire on her skin again, feel the pelting wind on her face, see the white-orange-red flames and smell burning flesh and sulphur. And then her vision went dark, and there was something covering her eyes, and Lucy damn near freaked out until she threw her hands up to pry away the _thing_ covering her face and felt metal studs imbedded in flesh. The body behind hers was big and very male, and she could smell iron and sweat and something that was just _him_ and only him. She let her body sag back against his, and Lucy didn't know that she was shaking until she felt the tremors through Gajeel's body.

Lucy calmed down listening to Gajeel strong heart beat, and although it took a few minutes, Gajeel didn't move - he just sort of propped her up with his own body. When her shaking had stopped and her eyes had dried, Gajeel removed the hand from her face. Makarov and Porlyusica were still there, concern in their eyes but Lucy was more focused on the large body still behind her. Tilting her head up, Gajeel was staring straight ahead at the two older mages, his eyes narrowed that little bit, jaw stiff. Everything about his face said hostile to Lucy, but the look fled as quickly as she had seen it, morphing back to his usual impassiveness.

Makarov's hand gently touched Lucy's arm, and she turned her eyes back to the guild master of Fairy Tail.

"Head back to the guild and rest, m'girl," he told her.

Again, while his voice was soft, there was an underlying tone that made her nod placidly.

Gajeel shifted away, his heavy boots stomping across the brittle floor as he resumed his angry pacing - or whatever it was that Gajeel did. Her fingers threaded back into her shorter-than-she-remembered hair, anxiously tugging at a handful of golden locks. There was no doubt that Fairy Tail was the safest place to be anywhere, but with all the mages in her apartment, Lucy could only imagine how dead quiet the guild would be. She would be _alone_. It was something she was used to since her childhood, but joining Fairy Tail had never given her a moment of quiet or _loneliness_. Lucky Lucy Heartfilia, alone again.

The thought made her jaw quake, but she couldn't trouble her friends more – they were already flat out trying to defend her from real-life threats; they didn't need to defend her from fake ones too. Steeling herself, Lucy gave a short nod to Makarov, turned on her heel, and marched herself to the door. There was no point in balking or lingering, even if her heart was hammering that little bit at the thought of being alone.

The stairwell was mostly untouched from then blast, and Lucy found herself standing in it, mind drifting away. She turned in a slow circle, eyes drifting from wall to wall. She could hear Fairy Tail down the hall, sifting through wreckage and debris, but there was _something_ about this spot that seemed so familiar, so…

_Oh._

It had been in this exact spot that Gajeel had been standing before the blast, and the looks on his face…

Gajeel Redfox wasn't exactly known for his emotions, well, for positive ones, but she had never seen such an expression on his face before. If Lucy had to put a label on his expression, she would have gone with _terrified_, but Gajeel didn't have a scared-reflex, or even seem to acknowledge it existence. She could remember him calling her name, before the fire and the wind and the white nothingness - and it was the first time he had ever called her by name. Bunny girl was what he always called her, never Lucy.

"Oi, bunny girl."

Gajeel was standing on the landing, his sharp red eyes locked onto her, but what caught Lucy's attention was the canvas bad under his arm. She didn't own a bag like that (and even if she did, she doubted it would have survived) and she doubted Gajeel would, so _how_ and _why_ did he have it?

"Yeah?" she found herself saying, and _ye gods_, could she sound more dejected.

Even Iron Gajeel's lip quirked downwards as he approached her, and it was nearly unnoticeable, but Lucy had been giving Gajeel too much damn attention lately. A light blush graced her cheeks as he stopped before her, one step higher then her and so much taller. She came up to his chest at this angle, and she could almost remember where that scar on his clavicle was…

_Dangerous thoughts, abort._

Her eyes darted up to his face, and he had a studded eyebrow raised, and it took Lucy a few moments to realise he was holding out the canvas bag to her. She dropped her head so she couldn't meet hid eyes and took the bag, glancing past its open zipper. _Clothes_. She could see clothes and little bags of toiletries, some scavenged from her apartment, but a lot she noticed weren't. _White Diamonds_ – Mirajane's perfume. _Soul Scrub_ – Cana's favourite bodywash and hair treatment sets. There were a handful of books peeking out from under the clothes, more than likely Levi's contribution, and she could see Bisca's clothes in the bag. The women of Fairy Tail had pooled together their things for Lucy, and it made her lip tremble dangerously.

"Don't fuckin start," Gajeel warned

Lucy gave him what she thought was an offended look, but it made Gajeel's mouth quirk downwards again, and she should _just give up_. Today was clearly not her day at getting across her point non-verbally. Lucy scrubbed at her eyes – she had cried enough today, and too much of that in front of the jackass Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail. Gajeel made one of those grunty noises that usually meant he was irritated or indifferent, and he shifted heavily from one side to the other. Lucy noticed that he was favouring one side over the other, but never brought it up with the stoic Slayer – she had already figured out that it was from an injury he got from protecting her.

Lucy numbly took the canvas bag Gajeel had loosely in his hand, turned and shuffled down the stairs. She hated being this weak, and what was worse was how much she wanted _her nakama_ to reassure her that she wasn't. And that pathetic little part of her that wanted Erza, Natsu and Gray back to make herself feel better – that hit Lucy had at how much she relied on them; over-relied, more like it. And Gajeel was falling dangerously into that category, too. She was relying on him too much, misplacing all her feelings of abandonment onto him and imposing herself on his very private life. _He must really hate her_.

And now she was going back to Fairy Tail, _alone_. Sad little Lucky Lucy.

"Stupid blonde," she heard Gajeel growl behind her.

The Dragon Slayer shoved past her, snatching at her wrist and dragging her out the building. Fairy Tail was north-ish of her apartment. Gajeel dragged her west.

"What? Where are we…?" Lucy started

"Shut up and follow me," Gajeel groused.

Lucy frowned at his broad back, but her heart skipped a beat. She had an inkling where he was taking her, but she never thought in a million years…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Never in a million years did Lucy think she'd ever seen…_this._

Lucy had her back against the ridiculously heavy iron door inside Gajeel Redfox's apartment, and just _stared_. Lucy always kept a clean place, despite how much she had visitors, wanted or otherwise, but _this place_ was scarily reminiscent of a trash dump. There was a carefully worn and repetitive path through what Lucy assumed was metal debris that laid a foot thick on the floor. In some places, it was piled up as high as her hip; chunks of metal with familiar bite marks missing from them, scraps of other things that Lucy hadn't the faintest idea what they were. It was actually kind of scary, and _how could he live in these conditions_.

And that door was ridiculous. There was no way that Lucy could even open that monster of a door, and the window she could see had heavy metal bars on them, the gaps just big enough for Lily to squeeze through. It was a very open design, and Lucy could only see one other door, to which she hoped was his bathroom and simultaneously that it was debris-free. He had a tiny, cluttered kitchenette that looked like it had never hosted human food before, and she could see no furniture except for one thing. Much to her surprise, there was a make-shift metal bookcase filled with ratty-looking books, but they were well-worn with use.

Gajeel threw her bag across the room, and Lucy squeaked and rushed to grab it before its contents could break. _That jackass!_ But when it landed, it bounced, which made Lucy stop at what could only be Gajeel's bed. When she said bed, she meant in the loosest terms; it was a mattress on the floor that was pushed up underneath the window, blanket rucked up at the end and pillow on the windowsill (?). _Why_ the pillow was there, Lucy had no idea, but this was, without a doubt, Gajeel's bed. All the blood in her face rushed to her cheeks as Gajeel stood behind her, and _ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod_ she was next to _his bed_ and _he was behind her_.

Her mind flushed with a myriad of fantasies, and all those dirty books that she and Erza shared sure as hell weren't helping.

Lucy let out an alarming squeak when Gajeel moved past her, enough to make him stop and look at her with a raised eyebrow. She was pretty sure that her face couldn't get much redder than it already was, but had a feeling that would be tested out very soon. Gajeel was looking at her with _those eyes_ and all Lucy could think about was _god that man could kiss_. His eyes were on her and Lucy couldn't help but wet her lips, but that was a big mistake, because Gajeel's eyes locked onto her lips and she could see his pupils dilating….

Gajeel let out an angry growl and jerked his head away like he was, well, his usual up-tight self.

"Go," Gajeel ordered harshly.

Lucy looked at him, eyes wide with shock. Was he…was he kicking her out? No. _No no no no no_. Gajeel made another rumbly sound, though this one sounded more displeased than anything.

"Go get changed," Gajeel clarified.

Lucy gave a squeak as an answer, scooped up her bag from the bed (_ohmygod ohmygod_) and dashed into what she had pegged as the bathroom. She was right about that innocuous door leading to the bathroom, and despite the shoddy lighting, it was relatively clean. The shower door was frosted from all the times that Gajeel _didn't_ clean it, and the fixtures in the sink looked like they were ready to fall apart, and there was the usual male 'take clothes off, put the on floor' in the corner. Despite all this, still not as bad as Lucy thought. It wasn't so much as dirty as it was very old, and apparently Gajeel couldn't be bothered with replacing anything with newer versions. Then again, judging by the room out there, she wasn't all that surprised.

Her face still hot, Lucy yanked open her bag and began to root around, looking for something to wear for what she assumed was sleep. It may be just approaching dusk, but she had been weary ever since she had woken up earlier in the day, and she knew that Gajeel wasn't running too hot either – he had still been there when Lucy awoke in the infirmary. A further inspection of her bag revealed an over-sized shirt she recognised all too much – it was one of Gray's many discarded shirts. Someone (her bet was on Cana) must have broken into Gray's dorm room and snatched his clothing.

With a wry smile on her face, Lucy yanked off her shirt and pulled on the one so kindly packed for her. The shirt come down to mid-thigh, so Lucy quickly shed her shorts and went to her bag for…_nothing_. Lucy frantically dug through the canvas bag of supplies only to find _no pants_ _whatsoever._ With an odd sort of terror, Lucy stared at the closed bathroom door.

It wasn't the first time she had been lacking in the pants department while around Gajeel, but the atmosphere is _odd_ out there. The Iron Dragon Slayer was a very hard man to read, and she had barely scratched the surface with him. The older mage had a very short fuse, something that no doubt had been tested a lot these past few weeks, and Lucy rued to see what Gajeel actually looked like when he finally loses it.

But the looks he had been giving her had changed so much. A few weeks ago they were angry, full of contempt and he thought she was crazy – but somehow it had all changed. Gajeel was surprisingly gentle with her despite his rough demeanour, and he looked at her so intensely that it made her skin prickle and her heart beat faster. And she couldn't stop herself being just that little bit conscious of him, and she had never particularly been aware of any man at all before… man… _oh HELL no…!_

"Oi"

Lucy jumped out of her skin at the single heavy thump on the door. A quick look around reminded her that she was in Gajeel's apartment, and there was a Dragon Slayer on the other side of that door. Without thinking, Lucy opened the door. Gajeel had changed into casual clothing consisting of black sweats. And. Nothing. Else.

Later, she would reflect on the irony of a shirtless Gajeel and a pantsless her, but it was far from her mind right now. Well, she _was_ suddenly aware that she had forgotten that particular article of clothing before she opened the door, and Gajeel's crimson eyes were already dragging over her body…

Lucy's cheeks flared bright red, and she immediately twined her hands in the hem of Gray's shirt and… _and Gajeel grabbed her_. Completely shell-shocked, Lucy was led to his bed (_eek!_) and tossed roughly down on the mattress. A thousand different scenarios went through her mind, the most prominent coming from a very racy book she had been reading a week before. And Gajeel was lowering himself down onto the bed, his eyes locked on hers, and Lucy's chest heaved for breath at the intensity of his gaze. He reached out and… _smacked her upside the head._

Lucy blinked blankly. Did he just… did he just assault her? There was a distasteful look on his face when he growled "sleep" to her, turned his back to her, and presumably went to sleep. Lucy was sitting not a foot from him, just _staring_ at the prone Dragon Slayer and _what the hell?!_ That's not how it went in books! In the books, the man threw her down and lavished attention on her, not smacked her and ignored her.

_Oh shit_. Lucy cringed, flung herself to the far side of the bed and curled up in a little ball. She had _wanted_ Gajeel to touch her. She wanted to feel his rough fingers again curled against her back, his steely arms wrapped around her. Lucy smacked herself this time, wrapped her arms around herself, and dreaded her night of sleeplessness next to _him_.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Love me, hate me, but _god_ I love writing scenes like that.

:p

Ave.


End file.
